WHAT PARENTS SAY ABOUT HAPPY BABY SIGNS
“For the last staff development day, we had a Baby Sign Language Workshop! It was phenomenal!!! The staff were thrilled about the class and many said it was the best part of our day. They were so excited about the class that we provided the staff with Happy Baby Signs' playgroup series at night after work. It was unpaid, professional development and we had a great turnout. We also offered parent introductory classes for parents, that we paid for, and held the workshops here. We have had a great response from the staff and parents. Bill is a great instructor and makes the class fun, while very informative. I would highly recommend him for any staff or parent workshops.”
Priscilla Wong, Director
Children’s Creative Learning Centers, Families@First (Cisco in San Jose), innovative child care solutions for today’s progressive employer
www.cclc.com, Email address available upon request
Priscilla Wong, Director
Children’s Creative Learning Centers, Families@First (Cisco in San Jose), innovative child care solutions for today’s progressive employer
www.cclc.com, Email address available upon request
“We took two of your courses last year when our baby, Malia, was 6-9 months old. I just want to say that a little before her first birthday, Malia started going crazy with the sign language. She learned all the words that we knew and we have been very very impressed. I'd guess she knows about 100 signs. Between Malia baby signs and her speech which are both advancing, we find that we can understand her a lot better than if she just had speech or signs alone, especially as she is learning the more complicated vocalizations now. So I can definitely see all the stuff you were talking about in class. Thank you so much for making sign language fun and easy for us.”
Marc & Rebecca Marasco and 12 month old Malia (Palo Alto, CA)
Marc & Rebecca Marasco and 12 month old Malia (Palo Alto, CA)
Because of baby sign language, I learned that my daughter cared about fashion before she could even speak. When Mari was a little over a year old, I was trying to put a hat on her and she kept taking it off and acting upset. She looked at me and did the sign for strawberry. I was initially confused. Is she asking to eat a strawberry? But then I remembered that she had a different hat that had a little picture of a strawberry on it. So I grabbed it and asked her if that was what she wanted. She got a huge smile on her face and happily put the hat on her head. Because I had taught Mari to sign, she was able to express a need to me that she would not have been able to ask for with words. Not only did it prevent a meltdown, it gave me a little window into what mattered to her. And to this day, Mari is still a girl that has a very strong opinion about most things - but especially her clothes!
Emily Ellingson and 12 month old Mari, Berkeley, CA
Emily Ellingson and 12 month old Mari, Berkeley, CA
Just a thank you note! This is our daughter Celeste, who recently turned 14 months. She is signing giraffe. She’s up to 33 signs, and more just keep coming each day now. She loves being able to know things and to share her knowing with us. Thank you for all the wonderful teaching!
Meaghan and Mike and 14 month old daughter, Celeste San Francisco, CA
Meaghan and Mike and 14 month old daughter, Celeste San Francisco, CA
"We had Erika, one of Happy Baby Signs' sign language instructors present a 90 minute workshop to our task force meeting. There is SO much information and Erika uses so many different teaching techniques that our staff walked away knowing quite a bit of sign language. Our group enjoyed it SO much that they still talk about it and have requested that we bring them back!"
Corri Inouye | Regional Education Coordinator, Northern California | Bright Horizons Family Solutions
Corri Inouye | Regional Education Coordinator, Northern California | Bright Horizons Family Solutions
“When Miriam was 12 months old we started classes with Happy Baby Signs' 6-week Playgroup Boom and within a month she was signing many useful signs including: BROCCOLI, BABY, as well as MORE, ALL DONE, BATH, SLEEP, and BALL. Communication became much less frustrating! We liked it so much we organized the 6-week Playgroup Zoom at our house. Soon, she was signing "More food please." Organizing the play group schedule ourselves allowed me to attend most of the classes and learn quite a bit of ASL while juggling my career and our older son's schedule.”
Dr. Sara Goldhaber-Fiebert and 17 month old Miriam (Anesthesiologist in Palo Alto CA)
Dr. Sara Goldhaber-Fiebert and 17 month old Miriam (Anesthesiologist in Palo Alto CA)
We took the Happy Baby Signs’ class when my twins were 8 months old. They've just turned 2 and we're all still signing! Our son especially relies on signing since his verbal skills aren't as developed as his sister's. Their daycare has a storyteller who signs and she was blown away at how many signs the kids knew and how fast they learned new signs. Now they know some signs that I don't even know. The "pronunciation" of their signs has improved greatly in the last 6 months as well. We have some signing flashcards that they pull off the shelf frequently. They hand me each card and we sign/say them together. BTW, whenever my son hears the alphabet song he tries to sign the letters (since that's what I do when I sing the song). We have the placemat you sold us and they point to a sign and we sign/sound out the letter. We are very thankful we kept signing since it's fun and has saved us all from frustration and tears! Yes, signing is the coolest. :)
Kim L. - [San Francisco] East Bay - Email address on request
Kim L. - [San Francisco] East Bay - Email address on request
“Lorelei has so many signs now it’s hard to keep track! Here's a shot of her signing, "EAT." Thanks so much for introducing us to this wonderful way to communicate with our daughter!”
Kristen and 12 month old Lorelei (Belmont, CA)
Kristen and 12 month old Lorelei (Belmont, CA)
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Calvin’s 13 months now and signs all the time and learns new signs every day. And speaks new words all the time too. Today he did peas while reading a book with peas did the sign and the sound effect. And he signed berries and said berries when I asked if he wanted berries for breakfast. Two firsts before 7am. 😃 Here’s a video of “fan” which we took last week and was one of his first signs.
Zoë, Brian and 13 month old Calvin (Santa Cruz, CA) |
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At 13 months old: [My daughter] has 35+ signs and counting! Every day is so fun and full of new and old signs - it’s the best. I’ll share some videos and the cutest photo of her signing moose while hugging her moose - SO SO GREAT! I’ll let the videos speak for themselves but let me know if you have any questions!
I realized I wasn't consistently signing 'where', but my natural hand gesture when asking any question was essentially the 'what' sign. She picked that up and started signing 'what' whenever I would ask where something was. Amazing how pliable their brains are, I quickly shifted to using the proper ASL ‘WHERE’ sign and now she does the same. In that video her toy had fallen out of the car just before recording and she was asking where it went. So cool. I think she's starting signing 'what' these days though, occasionally. Two months later at 15 months old: She’s up to 70+ signs and has recently started combining signs, like bath + time and sleep + bag. SO COOL! A month later at 16 months old: She continues to grow her signing vocab (80+, I’ve gotten a bit slow adding new words to the list. They come so fast!) and it’s as delightful as ever to watch! In the last few days her verbal babbling has really exploded and changed, I think she’s about to start putting words into phrases! It’s amazing how she uses some signs immediately and others are just occasional. Lately she signs ‘light’ and ‘dark’ all the time, it’s clearly an important concept, plus lots of lights around at Christmas. I’ve been signing and singing ‘What a Wonderful World’ lately and it’s amazing how she anticipates up-coming signs. she really likes to sign ‘people’ and ‘crying’, and ‘more’, but she starts them a beat early because she has that anticipatory excitement. So sweet! A month later at 17 months old: She has shown so much interest in letters lately and I’m certain it’s because I have always sung and signed the alphabet with her. About a month ago she pointed at an ‘O’ and said “Oh!” and since then she looks for Os everywhere. She also knows D, d, M, B, and S. I haven’t pushed any of this learning, she is just a sponge! It’s so cool. Watching her scan text and recognize letters is amazing, and she is always asking about new letters. She’s 17 months now, I’ve lost track of all her signs but we’re over 110 for sure. I’ll attach a couple videos of this letters stuff - it blows my mind! But also, why not, right? They are learning so much at this age and letters are everywhere, they just need some exposure in a fun way and they crave the knowledge. Catherine, mother and big fan of Happy Baby Signs - British Columbia, Canada |
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Wanted to send this cute video of Raiya signing water. She is so verbal, I wasn’t sure if she would start signing but at 13 months her signing has really exploded in tandem with her attempts at spoken language and it is so very helpful to differentiate which word that starts with the same letter she might be referring to! Thanks for these tools— our ability to understand Raiya has really cut down on that toddler screaming and created so many opportunities for connection and joy. I’m also attaching a picture of her signing “moon”— which she asks to go look for every evening now before bed! So glad we found you!
Miriam, Brandon, & Raiya (at 13 months), Pt. Richmond, CA |
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Our work paid off so much. Our son is signing soo much now! We thought you’d love to see it ; ) Sandor is signing MOMA and PAPA on the swings. Also signing KALT (cold in German) referring to the ice cream.
Verena & Barney and 11 month old Sandor |
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I thought you would enjoy this video of Madeleine doing the dog sign. We do a bunch of different signs with her but she consistently does milk, dog and dad. She’s 15 months, maybe some more signs will start soon! Katie Congress and 15 month old Madeleine - San Francisco, CA |
"I have to tell you that the introductory course has changed our lives. My daughter was recently diagnosed with autism and has a speech delay. Since I started signing with her I have seen a huge explosion in language and she can sign for things she wants instead of getting frustrated and melting down. Hoping our 5 month old will start picking it up too. He loves the songs with signs.”
--- Cat Nipp and her 27 months old daughter - Hollister, CA
--- Cat Nipp and her 27 months old daughter - Hollister, CA
I just shared your link with my Facebook group for children with Smith Magenis syndrome. I participated in a group with you around 2018 before I found out my daughters diagnosis. Thank you so much for doing what you do. I am hoping that people from my Facebook group join your class as it was so helpful in helping my daughter, who is now going to be five years old, to communicate when she couldn’t do so verbally until three years old.
Jamie Castillo (she/her), San Francisco, CA
Jamie Castillo (she/her), San Francisco, CA
Maxine is now 15 months old and we use signs with her every day. She uses 10+ signs and understands more. It has been so incredibly fun and rewarding to be able to communicate with her. I am positive it removes so much potential frustration for us and she feels seen and understood. Some signs she uses pretty much every day: Milk, more, please, thank you, eat, shoes, fruit, apple! Also, your advice to incorporate sound effects has been life changing. Thanks for what you do.
Irene and 15 month old Maxine - San Francisco, CA
Irene and 15 month old Maxine - San Francisco, CA
Alder is signing a few words now. It's so cute and I'm trying to capture them so I remember later. Here's his "all done" sign. He's also signing "more" and "milk" and can say "mama", "papa", and "cat". It's true that he often uses all his signs at once just to mean give me what I want whether it's to be picked up or more food or stop changing his diaper or get me out of this dang high chair.
Carrie and 11 month old Alder - Los Altos Hills, CA
Carrie and 11 month old Alder - Los Altos Hills, CA
I attended your class in spring 2019, with my then newborn Ciaran - at Sprout in Mill Valley. My husband had done some basic signs with his first son (now 14, and recently spontaneously remembered the sign for apple when asked, having not used it for 12 years...) and he was a fan. So I wanted to give it a try.
We had some early success with Ciaran. Then at about 12 months, a communication breakthrough! I cook a roast chicken most Sundays (English roots) and we were just introducing him to it. A couple of weeks prior, he’d had his first English roast potato and loved it. I signed potato while he was eating, but he didn’t even really seem to be paying attention, and he definitely didn’t sign it back to me. Flash forward a couple of weeks to the next roast dinner, and the potatoes were too hot to serve. So I put the chicken and veg in front of him while the potatoes were cooling, and he had his first full on meltdown. Jokingly, my husband said “I expect he knows this meal comes with roast potatoes and he’s mad that they’re not here!” We didn’t think for a second that was the problem.
Again, as much for light relief during a tantrum as anything, my husband said “if you can show me the sign for potato, I’ll get you one!” Through his tears, Ciaran made a perfect potato sign for the first time ever. We got him a potato, the tantrum stopped, and we realized it was literally a case of frustration at not being able to speak. So powerful.
For anyone who worries that signing delays speech development, Ciaran is also ahead of his peers on speech right now. Not yet 2, rather than crying in the night, we hear him calmly say “I need mummy! Where are you daddy? Open the door!” Which we attribute wholly to the calmness and confidence that comes with having been able to communicate his needs at an early age and being understood.
So, THANK YOU!
Lisa, Kevin and 12 month old, Ciaran Sullivan
We had some early success with Ciaran. Then at about 12 months, a communication breakthrough! I cook a roast chicken most Sundays (English roots) and we were just introducing him to it. A couple of weeks prior, he’d had his first English roast potato and loved it. I signed potato while he was eating, but he didn’t even really seem to be paying attention, and he definitely didn’t sign it back to me. Flash forward a couple of weeks to the next roast dinner, and the potatoes were too hot to serve. So I put the chicken and veg in front of him while the potatoes were cooling, and he had his first full on meltdown. Jokingly, my husband said “I expect he knows this meal comes with roast potatoes and he’s mad that they’re not here!” We didn’t think for a second that was the problem.
Again, as much for light relief during a tantrum as anything, my husband said “if you can show me the sign for potato, I’ll get you one!” Through his tears, Ciaran made a perfect potato sign for the first time ever. We got him a potato, the tantrum stopped, and we realized it was literally a case of frustration at not being able to speak. So powerful.
For anyone who worries that signing delays speech development, Ciaran is also ahead of his peers on speech right now. Not yet 2, rather than crying in the night, we hear him calmly say “I need mummy! Where are you daddy? Open the door!” Which we attribute wholly to the calmness and confidence that comes with having been able to communicate his needs at an early age and being understood.
So, THANK YOU!
Lisa, Kevin and 12 month old, Ciaran Sullivan
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Jasmine has really accelerated the pace of her learning! Thank you so much for your awesome teaching and sage wisdom. Check out the video of her asking to put on her shoes. She still hasn’t learned “more,” which is what her “shoes” looks like.
Sasha, Aaron, and 15 month old Jasmine - Oakland, CA |
We did the introductory workshop with happy baby signs when our daughter Sadie was about 2 months old and I was hooked! She started signing her colors, animals, and foods so quickly, and before she could count she understood numbers because we signed them. Now, Sadie is almost 3 years old and has been LOVING the toddler sign classes. She uses the feelings signs, and is excited to learn and teach me new signs every session! She even asks to watch recordings of her sessions with ‘teacher Erika’ and recordings of my old sessions with ‘teacher Bill’! Finally I just had to sign her up for another class. :)
On top of Sadie’s admiration for these classes, I, too, feel as though I have a proficiency in ASL that is incredibly helpful, just from attending your classes. THANK YOU for helping us foster a deep connection with Sadie’s sweet soul with lots of communication! Sadie ended up being incredibly communicative both with her signs and verbally- and now says little gems like ‘unfortunately, we’re not going to do that today mama’ (on the subject of brushing teeth for example) and ‘we got to teach Hank how to sign milk’ (Our son Henry is almost three months old and Sadie loves teaching him signs!)
Emily, Shaffer, Sadie (2.5 yrs), and Henry (3 months) - Portland, OR
On top of Sadie’s admiration for these classes, I, too, feel as though I have a proficiency in ASL that is incredibly helpful, just from attending your classes. THANK YOU for helping us foster a deep connection with Sadie’s sweet soul with lots of communication! Sadie ended up being incredibly communicative both with her signs and verbally- and now says little gems like ‘unfortunately, we’re not going to do that today mama’ (on the subject of brushing teeth for example) and ‘we got to teach Hank how to sign milk’ (Our son Henry is almost three months old and Sadie loves teaching him signs!)
Emily, Shaffer, Sadie (2.5 yrs), and Henry (3 months) - Portland, OR
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“I am having a fabulous time with Marc who still enjoys signing and is just beginning to mimic finger spelling. One of my favorite moments (ever) was when Marc, around 16 months old, put two books on the ground and started saying something excitedly that I couldn't understand. I then saw he was signing "train" in an exaggerated way, which helped me realize he was saying, ‘choo-choo.’ I was confused, though, because neither of the books was a train book. As soon as I said, ‘Train?’, his excitement level soared because I understood what he was saying. He then pushed the two books together along the floor, showing me that he had MADE a train. He started adding book after book to make a longer train, delighted that I figured out what he was doing. It all started, though, because I saw he was making a purposeful gesture that looked an awful lot like the sign for ‘Train.’ To this day, he loves trains, and I get to continue learning right alongside him about all different kinds of trains. I'm attaching two photos I took in the moment (you can see the joy in his face) and a video from later that day!”
Dr. Tricia Tayama and 2 year old Marc (Pediatrician, Burlingame, CA) Email provided by request.
Dr. Tricia Tayama and 2 year old Marc (Pediatrician, Burlingame, CA) Email provided by request.
“Here's a shot of Arthur signing 'thank you.' He's 15 months now and it is amazing to see how much he is signing! He started signing at 11 months with "all done" and "milk" but is up to at least 7 or 8 signs now. He frequently signs water, milk, all done and is starting to sign thank you, up, more and (our favorite) airplane! It really is amazing the amount of communication he has with us and how much it has really helped with is language acquisition. I seriously can't thank you enough for all of the knowledge you shared in your class. Thanks for all that you do, we appreciate you! We can't wait to sign up for the toddler series!”
Loren, Zack, and 15 month old Arthur - San Jose, CA
Loren, Zack, and 15 month old Arthur - San Jose, CA
"Aurelio is up to 13 signs! He’ll be 13 months on 12/15. He probably only uses milk, more, dog, bird and hot regularly - but starting to copy us quickly especially animals. I found him in his old bassinet this morning, and signed cat when he found Pete the Cat! 😻"
Heather, Gio, and 13 month old Aurelio - Santa Rosa, CA
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Opal is 11 months old and started signing at 8 months (dog and more). We started signing at 3 months with her after starting Happy baby signs zoom classes with Bill. She now has around 11 signs that she uses. On her 11 month birthday she saw the embroidered elephants on our quilt and finally did the elephant sign and sound effect! She has also has about 4-5 verbal words down. It’s been such a fun time learning and watching her grow together through signing!
Laura Hermann and 11 month old Opal - San Jose, CA
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"I just wanted to drop you a note to say how much we already enjoy teacher Erika’s class. We did in-person baby sign classes with some of your other instructors (three different women) when our toddler was a baby. It was a great experience and our daughter was using dozens of signs before she was a year old. I was a bit hesitant to do the virtual Zoom version because I wasn’t sure if it would be engaging enough for our now 3 year old.
Erika is amazing. The energy level, silliness, and creativity she uses to keep the kids interested even via zoom is so wonderful. Our daughter has loved it so far and it’s been fun for my husband and I to get back into signing, too.
Thank you for continuing to push forward and make these classes available even during COVID times. It’s something that helps us feel a bit more “normal” to get to do a class together again. Thanks!"
Leah K. (San Francisco, CA)
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Heather, Gio, and 13 month old Aurelio - Santa Rosa, CA
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Opal is 11 months old and started signing at 8 months (dog and more). We started signing at 3 months with her after starting Happy baby signs zoom classes with Bill. She now has around 11 signs that she uses. On her 11 month birthday she saw the embroidered elephants on our quilt and finally did the elephant sign and sound effect! She has also has about 4-5 verbal words down. It’s been such a fun time learning and watching her grow together through signing!
Laura Hermann and 11 month old Opal - San Jose, CA
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"I just wanted to drop you a note to say how much we already enjoy teacher Erika’s class. We did in-person baby sign classes with some of your other instructors (three different women) when our toddler was a baby. It was a great experience and our daughter was using dozens of signs before she was a year old. I was a bit hesitant to do the virtual Zoom version because I wasn’t sure if it would be engaging enough for our now 3 year old.
Erika is amazing. The energy level, silliness, and creativity she uses to keep the kids interested even via zoom is so wonderful. Our daughter has loved it so far and it’s been fun for my husband and I to get back into signing, too.
Thank you for continuing to push forward and make these classes available even during COVID times. It’s something that helps us feel a bit more “normal” to get to do a class together again. Thanks!"
Leah K. (San Francisco, CA)
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We have signed up for the July class and are really looking forward to it! Zelda is going to be 17 months old next week and has over 160 signs!!! She is starting to tell us stories, like today she remembered and told me that yesterday we sang 5 Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and that her nana had a monkey on the Skype call. We are constantly amazed at how much she has to say to us and how she can communicate with signing :)
Here's Zelda signing MONKEY!
Christine & 17 month old Zelda, (Oakland, CA)
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”I am such a firm believer in the power of sign language. Joseph turned 18 months last week and has about 30 spoken words and 70 signs. His latest favorite signs are bulldozer, trash, patience, and baby (because Joseph is going to be a big brother at the end of September!). We're having a ton of fun communicating with Joseph, and he very rarely gets frustrated by not being understood because we can almost always tell what he's saying."
Jessica and 18 month old Joseph (San Francisco, CA and headed to Tennessee!)
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"We took your boom and zoom sign language class a year ago at Blossom and I wanted to share a story of how sign language made my Monday way easier with my signing 18 month old.
Picking up my son Luke from daycare we were looking at cars and tractors at the construction site next to school. He is sucking on his hand because he's been teething. I asked "Do you want your pacifier" Signing, you, want, and pacifier. He nods yes and signs pacifier back. "It's at home, we need to go home to get the pacifier." signing home and pacifier. He nods and points to the car door and got into his seat with no fuss. (The day before it took be 2 minutes of crying to get him into the car seat.)
We get home, he gets his pacifier and we are good. "What do you want to eat?" Signing want and eat. He signed, cookie. Haha, good try, what about strawberries. Now, he can't do the sign for strawberries but he can sign eat and make a kissing noise. He ate his strawberries and goes back to the fridge signing and saying "cheese", we sat down, ate cheese, read a book and played until dinner.
So many things were made easier that day with sign language. We started in your class when Luke was only 3 months old and he didn't make his first signs to us until about 9 months old. The difference is that he knew what we were signing and could nod yes or no (or run to the bathtub for bath time!).
His signing started ramping up at 14 months and hasn't slowed. He uses signs that we haven't used in weeks and says a lot more words than the other kids in his class because he knows that words = things. I don't know if that is normal but it's normal for us!
Thank you so much for sharing sign language with our family."
Meredith, Pete and a very communicative 18 month old Luke (Sunnyvale, CA)
The virtual sign language class is SOOOO good! I’m so looking forward to our next session. I'm grateful we can connect and learn with each other online!
~ Sarah H. 💙💙💙
~ Sarah H. 💙💙💙
“We've been working with Charlotte on signing since she was about 2 months old. Even though there was no way she was going to sign back at us at that age it was really more about us practicing using it regularly. As you can see below it really paid off. Charlotte absolutely LOVES telling you what's on her mind through the course of the day - the ability to sign has actually INCREASED her vocabulary she actively tries to say. Words like, ‘mama, dada, turtle, tu-tu, milk, light, don't, down, help, poop.’ Also surprising, she is actually saying A LOT of words with very distinct sounds for each of them while doing the signs at the same time. The Happy Baby Signs method of using sound effects together with signs was very helpful in recognizing Charlotte’s signs.
We're looking forward to the toddler program; we'll sign up in a heartbeat! Thanks so much for your help Bill! I'm so happy we took your classes!
Update: “Charlotte has begun trying to sign the alphabet (especially to the tune of the "ABCD..." song) and now recognizes letters & constantly points them out as we go about our day (advertisements, signs, markings, etc.) I know a lot of parents must think their kids are doing well and I really feel weird being one of those parents but she definitely seems to be ahead of the curve. This is something we really attribute to the jump start you gave us in speech processing at such an early age. Thanks so much. Here's a new video of Charlotte recognizing letters at just 16 months old.”
Rick, Sharon and 16 month old, Charlotte Turlington (Menlo Park, CA) Email Richard
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We're looking forward to the toddler program; we'll sign up in a heartbeat! Thanks so much for your help Bill! I'm so happy we took your classes!
Update: “Charlotte has begun trying to sign the alphabet (especially to the tune of the "ABCD..." song) and now recognizes letters & constantly points them out as we go about our day (advertisements, signs, markings, etc.) I know a lot of parents must think their kids are doing well and I really feel weird being one of those parents but she definitely seems to be ahead of the curve. This is something we really attribute to the jump start you gave us in speech processing at such an early age. Thanks so much. Here's a new video of Charlotte recognizing letters at just 16 months old.”
Rick, Sharon and 16 month old, Charlotte Turlington (Menlo Park, CA) Email Richard
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“On the Baby Sign Language front, this is the BEST baby sign language program ever. Thanks to them, the classes we took before our twins were born and during their early months paid off when they both started signing ASL at 9 months old! By 12 months, they had the basic signs we needed to communicate with them daily (milk, more, all done) plus some really fun ones (train, duck, bath).
They are now 2 years old but still signing a ton of words, which is great since one of our twins is not as verbal as the other, so signing has helped a lot on taming tantrums and communicating proactively to avoid frustration (in them, and in parents!).
I strongly recommend that all parents take the Intro to Sign Language and then join the Sign Language Playgroups as soon as they can. The more practice that parents can have with signing to each other and to their children, the earlier and more successfully their kids will sign in return. The payoff is tremendous!”
Denise (San Mateo, CA) - Excerpt from Yelp.com. Find more reviews at Yelp.com
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Hi Bill, Being back in your class is such a treat! We have missed you! We miss being able to talk in person but online [during COVID-19 SIP] is easier for scheduling around toddler energy and nap. I just wanted to let you know that we have learned and are continuing to learn a ton from you, not just about signing, but also about parenting.
16 months: Sammy has recently started signing up a storm-it's fantastic. Sometimes full thoughts like "me eat more please." He does all the animals one handed for some reason...alligator and moose one handed are pretty funny.
18 months: Sammy loves signing with us too and making sound effects. He even invented a game of red light green light with signs and his train. It’s really helpful every single day. Thank you for all you do and for brightening our shelter in place.
Marni, Adam, and 18 month old Sammy (Belmont, CA)
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Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1
“If you remember us, around the last time we'd stopped by Camden had just started signing but no verbal words yet and we'd started looking into different assessments to see why the delay in communication. We started having speech therapy twice a week. Camden picked up about 100 signs which was great to see after all our time and effort in and out of your classes :) It was very rewarding getting that communication going. I can't possibly imagine all the extra frustrations we would have had if we didn't have sign language to communicate with early on. After January he picked up verbal words very quickly and now the average person wouldn't guess he had next to no words just back in December. I highly attribute this to getting started with ASL, even if it was delayed, it still got everything going sooner than if we had just waited for verbal words.
Now Camden is turning 3 later this month and he's just been assessed by a psychologist and was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1, requiring support, without intellectual impairment, with accompanying language impairment. We've had plenty of early intervention services with Camden's speech and other therapy which has had such a major impact. All along the way therapists have praised us for signing with Camden. We're very appreciative of having that kick-start of communication with him. Thank you!”
Donna, Leigh, and 18 month old Camden (San Francisco, CA)
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“It is so much fun to gain insight into what my 11 month old daughter is thinking about. She points to a lot of things, so it is is sort of hard to tell what she is interested in...until she started signing! For example, I think she's pointing to a toy, but then I see her sign ‘hat’ and I can respond appropriately instead of playing the guessing game as to what she wants. Her favorite sign these days is ‘gorilla’ and I always know when she wants me to read her zoo book with the gorilla on the cover because she gets a big smile on her face and does the sign for gorilla and points to the book. It's amazing to be able to communicate and know we are understanding each other even when she is pre-verbal. You were right, the added sound effects totally save us. I only know when she signs ‘balloon’ because she makes a fffttttt sound like she's blowing up a balloon. Great tip! Take care and we will look forward to the launch of the toddler series, Va Va Voom playgroup. I can't wait for more signs to come!"
Rebecca & 12 month old baby A, (Oakland, CA)
www.studentsgrow.com
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Five years ago I took your class at Natural Resources with my baby Austin. This week I’m home with him and his brother Taylor (14mo). Taylor is signing up a storm - bird, apple, drink, more, eat, ball, strawberry, diaper/change, hat, cracker, cheese, milk, don’t touch, baby, etc. - and the words are coming just as quickly. Thanks again. It’s delightful!
Tom, 5 year old Austin, and 14 month old Taylor
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My husband and I want to send a quick note to say how thankful we are that we took Playgroup Boom and Zoom last spring. Eleanor was only 4-6 months then, so as you say you were mostly teaching us. We stuck with it for our most common words and its amazing what she can do now and how one day it just clicked with her. She’s now 14 months and has about 15 -20 words and 5 or so signs. We see that we use the sign and word and she decides whether or not the sign or word is easier and goes with that.
I also can’t emphasize how important and happy you told us to use sound effects. Her first “sign” was for balloon at 11 months. When we would go to the grocery store she was fascinated by all of the balloons at the registers. I would sign balloon with the sound effect. She has ignored the sign when I do it, but definitely uses the sound of a balloon every time she sees them now. :-) It’s adorable, but also effective.
I can’t wait to see how her vocabulary flourishes over the next couple months.
Oh, and I forgot to mention how much my husband have also enjoyed the sign language. We can communicate across rooms and the park, in a loud bar (to order drinks thanks to those handy drink signs) and while we are on the telephone. ASL helps with not only communication with our daughter but with each other. Can’t thank you enough.
AZ, FZ and 11 month old Eleanor
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I took your class at Natural Resources several months ago and just wanted to tell you how happy I am that I took your class. My daughter, Isabella is 15 months old and she is such a great communicator. I took your advice about adding sound effects to the signs and this has been so helpful. I feel like she is pretty advanced verbally and I think teaching her sign language has played a big role in her language development. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Natalie and 15 month old Isabella
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One of the first signs our child learned was "duck" b/c I used to sign it for her in the bathtub with her rubber ducky. She loves that sign b/c it's easy to do and she likes the "quack" sound. So ... the other night in the bathtub, she let out a big ole' fart. As quickly as she heard it, she turned around, looked at her butt, then signed "QUACK" and smiled. And you know what ... she's right. Quack and the sound/feel of a fart are sort of similar.
Parent's requested the child's name be anonymous for obvious reasons :-D
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”Little Maddie is 16 months old now and at last count she’s using around 25-30 signs! Some words she signs exclusively – especially multi-syllable words like elephant – and others she both says and signs. There are a few she doesn’t sign often but she will speak the words when she sees us sign them… and will point out the object. Most terms though she says and signs interchangeably. What a great gift you’ve given us! According to her pediatrician she’s got a tremendous spoken vocabulary for her age - about 80 words now – and we attribute it all to the signing. Thank you, THANK you for all you do.”
Dori Gutman and 16 month old Maddie (San Leandro, CA) Email by request
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“Bill came to our infant-toddler center for an seven-session series, teaching two half-hour sessions back-to-back. He always arrived in plenty of time and stayed beyond his full hour. We teachers loved his classes! Bill is a fabulous teacher: responsive to our questions and needs, and presenting signs in a lively and fun way. He was flexible regarding teachers and children coming and going, and where we held class - outside or inside, different classrooms depending on our needs that day. During class, children would approach him crawling or walking, and he wouldn't miss a beat, keeping up with the lesson while being friendly to the children. We teachers particularly enjoyed learning the songs, such as "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," which we would practice throughout the week. We also especially benefited from learning signs for everyday and urgent communication with the infants and toddlers, like "outside," "jacket," "no biting," and "pain." Bill's classes enriched our teacher culture, bringing to the team fun and laughter along with a new teaching tool. I feel very lucky that our center brought in Happy Baby Signs' sign language.”
Lisa Park | Infant Toddler Teacher | C5 Children’s School, 525 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco,
www.c5children.org
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"I took the baby sign language workshop and Boom playgroup series at Kaiser in Redwood City. It was a really great experience. My baby was 6-7 months old during the class. I thought her age was perfect. We took her to all the classes (you are welcome to bring your baby or leave her at home) and she wasn't old enough yet to get into trouble and crawl all around, but was old enough that she could play with toys and sit up on her own while I participated in the class.
It really was a sign language class for adults, but with the vocabulary geared toward baby activities. In order for it to be worthwhile it took (and still takes) a lot of commitment from the parents. Since I took the class about 6 months ago I've been signing while talking to my baby every single day. When I look for books or toys to get her, I try to find ones with clear pictures of items I know how to sign (e.g. a book with a realistic looking bird as the main character rather than a cartoon monster). The class itself is only as useful as you make it.
After about 3 months of signing to my baby, she started using "milk". Now she can clearly and confidently sign "more", "help" and quite a few animals and household objects ("ball", "hat", "dog"). She gets a big smile and look of pride on her face when she recognizes an object, does the sign for it, and then gets a positive reaction from me. I feel like I've given her another tool for communicating and learning about the world around her.
I'd recommend taking the 1-day workshop if you are interested. You might be able to cobble together a useful vocabulary using online videos and library books, but it would be good to at least get a baseline understanding of how to sign and how to use body language with your baby before turning to the internet for help. Probably the best part of the class was the accountability. It was easier to diligently practice when I knew I'd have another class in a week. So if you are the type of person that joins a gym just to give you an incentive to work out, this would be a great class for you. If you are totally self-motivated, perhaps the workshop only would suffice."
Hollie and Rhiannon, Age 12 months, Menlo Park
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"I wanted to extend a sincere thanks from my husband and myself for what you taught us with our son in your baby signing class at Carmel Blue. It REALLY helps us communicate with him. And lately he's been surprising us daily with both words, and his ability to sign new signs. Starting younger helped. He's 15 months old and he now signs: more, milk, duck, froggie, sleep, elephant, water, bread (his favorite food), and "eat" a first the other day! YAY! and chicken. Probably some I'm forgetting. But I am really impressed.
...Update a year later, he is still signing, speaks above average, and we are teaching him some Spanish and Chinese, using sign language as the translator for these languages. It's super helpful. Also, he wants to learn how to read already, so we are looking the finger spelling to connect letters for him on a kinesthetic level. Great stuff!"
The Young Family (San Francisco, CA)
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“Genevieve was babbling away and I wasn't quite sure what she was saying since so many words sound alike, so I asked her to "sign" it for me- she did and I totally understood what she wanted!! Yippee for signing!! She now signs and says the words!”
S. Campbell (Redwood City, CA)
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"I've had the pleasure of taking Bill's introductory course and 2 online series. His classes are fun and informative with lots of accessible and useful signs and some really fun songs. We love using signs with our little one as a way to connect and play and communicate.”
Jaime and 4 month old Indigo (Oakland, CA)
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“We started taking Bill's series at 3 months and I believe we've taken it 3-4 times. Our daughter Asrai started signing at 9 months with light, followed by milk, stripes and dog in the months following. Around 12 months she had around 25 signs and now at 14 months we've lost track. When she is trying to get something across that we don't get right away, she will hold eye contact and try over and over until we get it or guess it. She signs to be read a book READ-BOOK-PLEASE--sometimes with an identifying sign for different books; signs for the food she wants and of course for milk; and delights in identifying animals, stuffed and in real life. She also knows when to sign please to melt our hearts. Currently she is putting signs together to make short *sentences* most of them could be called jokes. My favorite is "EAT-DOG-OH NO!" The other thing she likes to sign is noun-scary/scared. Like MAMA-SCARY, BABY-SCARY, CHEESE-SCARY etc. In those cases she is doing it for a laugh but she also signs when she's scared of certain people or cars which is very helpful. We are so grateful to have such successful communication with our daughter who is largely preverbal.”
We attended many sign-language sessions with Asrai from 5 months on. She started signing at 9 months and took off at around 12. At the height of her signing she signed in complex sentences with over 200 signs. When she began speaking verbally around 2 years she spoke in (mostly) complete sentences. Sometimes we couldn't understand her and she would sign what she was saying to help us. Even recently, a few months shy of 3 years old, she was having trouble being understood. Her dad asked her where her mom was and she said "she's nursing" but her toddler-accent was strong and he didn't understand her after she repeated it a few times and he asked her to sign what she was saying and she said Zoë (her little sister's name) and signed milk. Now we are taking refresher classes for Zoë who is starting to sign.
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Asrai started signing little by little at 9 months and took off at 12 months. She was able to communicate her wants and needs well. At around 15 months she started making jokes! Once when asked what she wanted to eat she signed that she wanted to eat her toy dog followed by putting her hands on her face to signify “oh no!” When repeated back to her she laughed hysterically and signed it again until an appealing suggestion of a real food was made. Another time she signed cheese while we were watching a movie and Toby told her it was bed time not cheese time. Five minutes go by and she puts her face in front of mine, saying and signing “mama” until I ask her what. She then proceeds to sign “cheese time”. Toby and I just about died of laughter and I went and got her some cheese. She went on to sign this for some time for quick laughs along with rudimentary poop jokes like laughing and signing "scary poop" after using her potty. ASL gave us more than basic communication, it gave us a little comedian!
Toby and Rayna Mayer, and 14 month old Asrai (Palo Alto, CA)
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“Thought you'd like to see a video of us using our sign language in the hospital with 14 month old Vivian. Thank god I found your class as she may not speak again for a year or so.
We sure are glad we started signing early. It looks like it will come in handy! Vivian was born with airway issues, neurofibroma tumors by her larynx that were removed. We have been to ER many times...lots of steroids for swelling, finally decided she would need a tracheostomy tube to breath, grow and develop.
The sign she does the most at home is airplane as they fly over our house every few minutes. She puts her hand up in the air and leaves it there for a few seconds. We were all so happy to see her REMEMBER the sign! At home, we go through flashcards each meal time to learn new signs.
Just wanted you to see how much your baby sign language class has meant to me. I know you meet many families but you never see what happens later. I hope the video makes you feel very special because my desire to learn more was from you! THANKS FOR BEING SUCH A GREAT TEACHER!”
Amy Joy Hahner and 14 month old Vivian. (San Jose, CA) Email provided by request.
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"Addison is 16 months old and is able to do 37 signs! It's amazing and so fun to be able to communicate with her! At this point, I can show her a sign once and she is almost immediately able to repeat it back to me. Signing is the greatest! Today, when Addison and I left this little class we are taking, I asked her to say ’thank you’ to the teacher and she signed thank you. It was such a great public affirmation that she not only understands and can communicate, but that she's using manners! :) The other great part about this interaction was that the teacher knows baby sign language, so she signed, ‘you're welcome’ in return. Thanks again for the class.”
Darci Tracey and 16 month old Addison, (Mountain View, CA)
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“You might remember me, my husband Jeff, and our daughter Penny from the sign language class at PJCC. We were the ones who had extra grammar and vocabulary questions after every session. Well, we've kept up with the signing, and while Penny doesn't ask for her diaper changed (yet), she can communicate lots of other things. We took the attached video yesterday. You'll see her briefly sign ‘more’, ‘train’ and ‘hat’. Her other favorites are ‘milk’, ‘ball’, ‘dog’ (snapping), ‘bed’, ‘socks’ and ‘bubbles.’ She's picking up new signs nearly every day now, which is exciting to watch.
Penny's also signing ‘water,’ ‘wash hands,’ ‘banana,’ ‘peas,’ ‘bread,’ ‘mommy,’ and, to my total amazement, ‘swing’ (at her request, we now go to the park almost every day!). Thank you so much for teaching us baby ASL; definitely the best educational course we've ever taken!”
Allison and 12 month old Penny (San Carlos)Great Photos on file and a Video
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“We are great here and enjoying all the signs!! :-)
The boys turned one on January 28 (born 6 weeks premature so developmentally one year old on March 6). They are both signing up a storm!
Here are the signs that they can do consistently: mom, dad, grandpa, eat/food, milk, more, please, pea, all done/all finished, dog, fan, burp, bath, walk, car/drive, and change.
We are working on good, thank you, no, yes, sorry, see, later, wait, work, sleep, night, cracker, and many more.
There are some signs that they just are not coordinated enough to do right now, but they are really picking the signs up quickly!"
Rhiannon LaBrie and 11 month old Liam and Arlo (San Jose, CA)
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Just a quick note to say Anna is signing up a storm these days. She is 16 months old and regularly uses; monkey, hat, eat, milk, cheese, banana, broccoli, tree, berries, apple, more, elephant, please, all done, red and more. It's so fun! and so useful as she can tell us when she is hungry. We are having so much fun with the signing with her. I do think one of the things that made it easier for Anna to learn all this was having not just me and Jon be there in the class, but her grandparents too - they really got on board with this and further helped to reinforce it. Thanks again for teaching us this great skill!"
Jon, Danny, and 16 month old Anna (Muir Beach, CA)
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“Communicating via signs has been a dream! Abigail is rarely frustrated and therefore so am I. At 17+ months, she's just at the cusp of dropping some signs because she can verbalize them too, but it's still so cute to have her sign and speak at the same time. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Debra, Ethan and Abigail Allison (Foster City, CA), Click to email Debra. Click for Debra's Spanish Tutor
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“I should tell you that Sean (now 8 months) did his first sign - all done - used at the end of bath and mealtimes about a month ago. He also signs dog (for pretty much every mammal, but not bad) and also flaps his arms for happy, so he is getting close. He does a lot of things that aren't sign language but gets the message across - like tapping on the door to go outside and the chair to sit on it. He understands many more signs since sometimes I just sign to him without speaking. Also, my niece Elizabeth, who was hearing impaired from birth until surgery at 5.5 months, is now 11.5 months and signing sentences, such as "Play outside, Grammy" So, it works to start early as my sister and I did. Thanks so much for your great class. We got a lot out of it and continue to sign in conversation and reading books every day.”
Seven Months Later
“Sean had over 50 spoken words and numerous signs at 15 months. Now, at 17 months, he is saying three word sentences. He continues to learn new signs and usually adopts both the sign and the spoken word at the same time. He also has made up his own signs, such as excavator - which is sort of a modified elephant. I knew what he meant the first time he used it! I am very happy to have a baby that likes communicating. The redundancy certainly helps since the sign and spoken word together, especially at the early stages, gave us a clue, and he was so excited that we understood him, I think it encouraged him to try more. Plus, the alphabet placemat taught me the signing alphabet (good for working with my deaf student) and I am sure contributed to Sean knowing his alphabet since he loved going over it with me. Thanks again!”
DLL and 17 month Sean (Pacifica, CA)
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I have to say, I was originally a skeptic and did not think sign language would benefit a child's language development. That is entirely untrue and was solely based on my uneducated opinion at the time. I changed my mind within minutes of attending my first class taught by Bill. There was so much information about the benefits of teaching your child sign language that go far beyond the linguistic advantages and it all made perfect sense. I was immediately intrigued by the teaching style and enjoyed the four week class I attended with my then 11 months old daughter at the Foster City library last November. At first, I didn't think she responded much to my efforts of signing with her, but I enjoyed going to the class so much that I stuck with it and I kept signing with her. Of course my "vocabulary" was still very limited, but my enthusiasm did not dwindle and when the Woodward library and then Atherton offered the classes in 2015 I knew I would go again with my daughter. Those classes were taught by Erika and while I really liked Bill as a teacher I must say Erika topped it all off! She is wonderful with kids, and her class is fun even for adults. I find myself glued to her performance (for lack of a better word). She sings songs (her voice is lovely) and reads books with tons of facial expressions and gestures to keep the little ones entertained and interested while teaching them american sign language. Even if you had no intention of learning the signs, I guarantee you, you would enjoy her class. She brings items to the class that pertain to the topic she is teaching, weaves them into the stories she is telling and songs she is singing, thereby helping capture the children's attention. The kids learn american sign language in a fun and entertaining way. It is obvious that Erika enjoys working with children and teaching them sign language. She is excellent at what she does. The best part is, my daughter is now 16 months old and is using roughly 30-40 signs. It is amazing how all of a sudden she picked them up and started to sign back to us. At first there was the sign "more" and "milk", then nothing for a little while, and then within days, her sign vocabulary expanded tremendously. It was like an avalanche of signs all of a sudden. The other day I pushed her in the shopping cart past the strawberries at the grocery store, and she signed "strawberry" to me. She can't say the word yet, and without her ability to sign, it would have gone completely unnoticed by me that she recognizes the fruit, but thanks to the sign language we were able to have that "conversation". And it goes on and on, this is just one of many examples. Your kids will feel less frustrated trying to tell you what they want, because you will understand their signs before they can express themselves in spoken language sufficiently to be understood. It's an amazing tool and I am so glad to have ignored my initial hesitation and gone to that first class. All it took was 5 minutes to change my mind and the two teachers I have met from Happy Baby Signs are both phenomenal. Erika in particular is exceptionally wonderful with kids. I highly recommend Happy Baby Signs and their American Sign Language classes. The best activity I have gone to with my daughter besides swimming, which she loves also, and she can sign water and fish, so we have sign language conversations about that as well.... :) Long story short, go and try out their classes, you will not regret it!
Elisabeth M. (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
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We took Baby Sign Language with Bill at Blossom Birth. It was absolutely fantastic. I had no interest in this as I thought it was another silly baby class trend designed to make new parents spend even more money, but I happened to catch an intro at Whole Foods and as Bill talked about the benefits of being able to communicate sooner and better with your baby/toddler - giving then a sense of control, a voice, a start on labeling and categorizing the world around them, I was hooked.
I was not disappointed when I joined the class and my husband and baby loved it as well. Bill is fun and engaging and sings songs, teaches relevant vocabulary with lots of parenting pointers along the way. We also had Aniko observing our class and substituting and she is a great new teacher that I wouldn't hesitate to take a class with. I highly recommend these classes - everyone had a wonderful time and we are really enjoying communicating not only with our son, but as an added bonus we use it a lot with each other in social situations (to communicate a need without interrupting someone, like water) and when we don't want to wake the baby. Loved it!
Gina L. (Mountain View, CA)
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I took the baby sign language workshop and Boom playgroup series at Kaiser in Redwood City. It was a really great experience. My baby was 6-7 months old during the class. I thought her age was perfect. We took her to all the classes (you are welcome to bring your baby or leave her at home) and she wasn't old enough yet to get into trouble and crawl all around, but was old enough that she could play with toys and sit up on her own while I participated in the class.
It really was a sign language class for adults, but with the vocabulary geared toward baby activities. In order for it to be worthwhile it took (and still takes) a lot of commitment from the parents. Since I took the class about 6 months ago I've been signing while talking to my baby every single day. When I look for books or toys to get her, I try to find ones with clear pictures of items I know how to sign (e.g. a book with a realistic looking bird as the main character rather than a cartoon monster). The class itself is only as useful as you make it.
After about 3 months of signing to my baby, she started using "milk". Now she can clearly and confidently sign "more", "help" and quite a few animals and household objects ("ball", "hat", "dog"). She gets a big smile and look of pride on her face when she recognizes an object, does the sign for it, and then gets a positive reaction from me. I feel like I've given her another tool for communicating and learning about the world around her.
I'd recommend taking the 1-day workshop if you are interested. You might be able to cobble together a useful vocabulary using online videos and library books, but it would be good to at least get a baseline understanding of how to sign and how to use body language with your baby before turning to the internet for help. Probably the best part of the class was the accountability. It was easier to diligently practice when I knew I'd have another class in a week. So if you are the type of person that joins a gym just to give you an incentive to work out, this would be a great class for you. If you are totally self-motivated, perhaps the workshop only would suffice.
Hollie P. (San Francisco, CA)
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I wanted to extend a sincere thanks from my husband and myself for what you taught us with our son in your baby signing class at Carmel Blue. It REALLY helps us communicate with him. And lately he's been surprising us daily with both words, and his ability to sign new signs. Starting younger helped. He's 15 months old and he now signs: more, milk, duck, froggie, sleep, elephant, water, bread (his favorite food), and "eat" a first the the other day! YAY! and chicken. Probably some I'm forgetting. But I am really impressed.
The Young Family (San Francisco, CA)
Update a year later, he is still signing, speaks above average, and we are teaching him some Spanish and Chinese, using sign language as the translator for these languages. It's super helpful. Also, he wants to learn how to read already, so we are looking the finger spelling to connect letters for him on a kinesthetic level. Great stuff!
T R. (San Francisco, CA)
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The signing was indeed a tremendous hit and help during the pre-talk age, and my son really took to it. I have some great stories. One of my favorites was we were on a bike ride and heard a loud pop and while biking I explained that was a fire cracker. Later, that evening at dinner on the deck, I saw him staring out into the evening sky. I asked what he was thinking about and he signed to me: first, "fire", then "cracker". I about fell off my chair!
Lucinda Crisman and 16mo Colton (Santa Cruz, CA)
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We love Baby Sign Language Class at Carmel Blue in North Beach. Bill White at Happy Baby Signs Baby Sign Language is the best of the best. He is very focused on making teaching/learning fun for parents and babies and does so with an understanding on the time constraints for new parents. His anecdotes will have you rolling, and you'll also get a nice adult vocabulary as well... for those margaritas we all want to get after class :). I'm a firm believer (once a skeptic) of baby sign language after bill's teachings, and love having a new way to interact with my little one (5 months). The workshop was very informative and offered a sound base of understanding in the benefits of baby sign language and WHY it works. We've enrolled in Boom and Zoom, and may even do a repeat class just because we find it fun and educational. Its also a great way to meet other parents and babies :).
Ali E. (San Francisco, CA)
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I'm a new mom of a seven month old and have probably taken every "new baby" class there is in San Francisco. I can say without any reservation that Bill's sign language class is the best class I've taken so far. Highly recommended!
Candice S.
San Francisco, CA
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My wife, 7-month old and I started Bill's baby sign language class two weeks ago, and we've loved every minute of it. Having been to a handful of pregnancy- and baby-related classes over the past, oh, 16 months, I was starting to think that all instructors in the category 1) were not good teachers, 2) had zero time management skills, and 3) were completely self-unaware about points 1 and 2.
Bill is the total opposite. The class is well-organized, he communicates the agenda ahead of time, he stays on-topic (and when he doesn't, it's enjoyable), and most importantly, he's a fantastic teacher. Anyone who can keep the rapt attention of a handful of babies and their parents is a talented guy.
The classes are an hour long, and Bill is such an enthusiastic teacher, and keeps things moving so well that the time flies by, and before you know it, you're talking with your hands. He's a real multi-dimensional teacher, in the sense that he engages a lot of the senses in the process. Obviously sign language involves the hands and body, but he adds sound effects (since the babies can hear), and uses a lot of singing and helpful mnemonics to keep everyone on track.
Only two weeks in, and I'm using about 20 different signs on a regular basis with my baby. Looking forward to the next four weeks of classes!
Andrew M.
San Francisco, CA
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A group of us - enthusiastic moms, dads and babes - got together and hired a baby sign language instructor from Happy Baby Signs to teach us signs every week for a few months...
There were about 8 classes, and each session had a different topic - food, bath, family, colors, etc. I admit...the materials were sometimes overwhelming to me and my husband since there were lots to learn in one hour. But the instructor provided us with sufficient review materials and offered books and DVDs for purchase if we wanted to also study on our own.
Each class was fun. She incorporated games, songs, props and video demonstrations to enhance learning. She welcomed all questions and was patient with crying, crawling and running babies.
As for the actual signing...we have yet to learn it well, but we're eager to start signing with our baby. It's an amazing way of communicating with your little ones even before their first words!
SUM: Highly recommended.
Keiko S.
Singapore, Singapore
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When I was about 4 months pregnant, we got to watch Bill's baby sign demo @ the SF Birth & Baby Fair. After being a teacher in early childhood education for many years, I knew the importance of signing with little ones & it's many benefits. That being said, I never knew just how important it was until my husband Brad & I watched Bill's demo that day! Walking away from the demo it was as if the light bulb went off for both us & we instantly looked at one another & said "WE HAVE TO DO THIS & REALLY DO IT." We signed up for the introductory class at DayOne in Palo Alto with Bill so that we could learn some basic signs before our son was born. When we brought our son Emery home from the hospital we started using the basic signs that we learned so that we could become acquainted, comfortable, & confident in signing before Emery was old enough for us to begin signing with him. Surprisingly at 4 months old he signed MILK! My husband and I saw him & we signed it back to him & said "You want milk?" & he signed it repeatedly! When my husband came back into the room with the bottle & showed it to Emery he signed milk! Emery signing back to us had began. We were BEYOND excited. The very next day we called DayOne & we enrolled in Bill's playgroup series & convinced another couple we are friends with who has a son Emery's age to enroll too! In the next month & a 1/2, Emery continued signing milk on & off & we continued signing to him at *EVERY* opportunity we had. We learned so much from Bill's classes & enjoyed them so much. The next sign Emery added to his vocabulary was "change" (change diaper), he really didn't like having a wet diaper! Emery had been signing "change" for about a month and a 1/2 and when we were down in Southern California in the summer visiting my in laws, he kept signing change, change, change, change, change! Brad & I kept checking him & he wasn't wet nor had he had a BM so we kept saying "you aren't wet, you aren't poopy, you don't need to be changed right now." Well Emery had a different idea to that, he kept signing change, change, change for 15-20 minutes & began getting very upset (Hello Mom & Dad, I'm signing CHANGE ME!) so as Emery was persistent, I said to my husband "maybe something is bothering him, perhaps the diaper is rubbing him or something." So Brad went to change him & we were shocked! Inside Emery's diaper was an ANT! A live, crawling around ANT! Well long story short... my in laws had a minor ant invasion upstairs in one of their bathrooms (the one we had stored Emery's diapers in). POOR BABY! It was from that point on that we were true believers in the power of communication that baby signing can give a baby and its parents! Also, of course we felt horrible that we weren't listening to him before! Fast forward a few more months to Emery being between 8-11 months & his signing vocabulary just exploded over night it seemed!!! He was signing milk, change, eat, more, tree, dog, light, Daddy, ball, bird, animals, hurt/owwie, medicine, it was AMAZING! Not only had we become total fans of baby signing but also of Teacher Bill too! Any baby fairs we would go to, we always would go & see Bill's demo. He's such a nice, genuine guy which a wonderful sense of humor & charismatic energy. His passion of signing has become ours. Now (as of July 2013) Emery is a few days shy of 17 months old & he has over 100 signs (we actually stopped counting about 3 months ago while on vacation in the midwest and east coast & at that time he had 92 signs that we had noted in his baby book) and he also has 50+ verbal words (now of course, some of which others who don't know Emery might not understand but we sure do! Example: "nanny" is "banana" "mmm-o" is remote, etc.) Emery is also signing & verbally speaking words (says & signs "nanny" for banana). I can not tell people enough how much we recommend Happy Baby Signs for baby signing classes nor how great Bill truly is. Baby signing for us has been such a huge part of our lives as first time parents. It's been a monumental experience for us & I know years & years & years down the road when we look back at Emery's early years, baby signing will always be a HUGE memory of it. Our immediate families also have learned baby sign & have signed with Emery since he was months old and it has allowed them to communicate with & understand Emery's wants & needs. What a perfect way to show Emery that the people in his life care about what he has to say!!! (Something Bill is always mentioning, well it's nothing but the truth!) It has been a lot of fun, extremely beneficial, & has allowed us to bond with Emery in ways we couldn't have without the use of signing with him. We are happy that Happy Baby Signs is going to be starting Toddler signing classes soon & we can't wait to sign up. Hubbie & I are currently working on a video montage of Emery's journey with baby sign & will send it to Happy Baby Signs when it is done. THX Happy Baby Signs & TEACHER BILL! YOU ROCK!
Crystal C.
Fremont, CA
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I took a Sign Language Class with Bill White and absolutely loved it! Having a new confidence and way to communicate with your infant or toddler is priceless!
Emily G.
Palo Alto, CA
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“I just wanted to say, ‘Thank you’ again for introducing us to baby sign language. Orea is doing more signs everyday and it has been so much fun for us. Her most consistent signs have been dog, bird, monkey, eat, milk, bath, book and she even made up her own sign. She mixed the tilting of the hand ‘drink’ with a thumb in her mouth for 'sippy cup'. And every night before bedtime she makes sure she signs the work 'book' several times so that we don't miss that very important step. And my final bragging point....she has been adding signs together for sentences...like 'more' + 'milk' and 'more' + 'book'.
Anyway, I guess you can tell we are loving it and I really enjoyed your classes. You have a fun way of presenting the material without being too rigid. It was relaxing and fun! I hope you keep teaching the classes and passing on your knowledge and enthusiasm to others.”
Patricia and 15 month old Orea (Santa Cruz, CA)
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“I wanted to thank you so much for the gift of signing. It is really the gift of being able to communicate with our daughter. She has about 60 words now at 15.5 months (~45 signs and 15 spoken words). The range of communication--understanding and expression is really wide and I am so grateful to be able to know what she wants to eat (usually pizza) and what she is thinking about (usually ducks). :)
Again, many thanks. You did a phenomenal job in introducing us to this, giving us this brilliant skill, and helping us to have so much fun getting to know Lilly through signs.”
Eugenie and 15 month old Lilly. (Palo Alto, CA) Email address available upon request
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“Ruby is now 14 months and has been doing signs since about 11 months - milk and more were the first. She also does bath and bed and several animal signs. Now that she is older she picks up the signs so quickly after only a few times of showing her. We are back in Australia now and everybody is amazed at how she is communicating. Thanks so much for your class and encouragement.”
Sally and 14 month old Ruby (Australia) Email upon request
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“We love the class. It is a lot of fun and is making learning how to sign so much easier than looking it up in a book or online. After the first class, my husband and I were amazed at how many words we learned in just one hour. Cassie really enjoys watching the instructor as he signs and makes sounds for every word. We have started showing our sitter some of the signs so she too can use them with Cassie and the other kids. Well worth the money and a great time for the family.”
Dawn, Mike and eight month old, Cassie (San Jose, CA)
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“Just thought you would like to know that Kyla is signing. She started signing "milk" the day she turned 9 months. Now, a few weeks later is signing "eat", "music", and "more"! We are so proud :) Thanks again for a great class!”
Corinne, Jason, and 9 month old Kyla (Santa Cruz, CA)
Now living in Norway, fast forward one year:
“My daughter and I took your class a little over a year ago in Santa Cruz when she was 6 months old. She started signing for milk at nine months and learned over 70 signs. She became extremely verbal at 18 months and now at 22 months she still signs sometimes while saying the word. We moved to Norway 2 months ago and she is already starting to pick up some Norwegian. I think her signing was a great foundation for her being multilingual. Thanks for a great class!”
Corinne, Jason, and 22 month old Kyla (Sandefjord, Norway)
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“I've been meaning to email for a long time, but what happened this week really prompted me to do so.
I took your 6-week class when my son, Nolan, was a few months old. He's now 23 months. I don't feel like I was as active as I could have been in teaching him signs (I know so many after taking your class!), but he probably has almost 50 and still uses them all the time even while he says the words out loud. It's always been so cute to see him sign -I still think "moon" is one of my favorites and "help" has been so helpful these days to cut down on frustration.
Anyway, a funny thing happened when I was putting him to bed the other night. We always "talk about our day" after reading stories and before singing songs. We've been in Grass Valley visiting family and his 1-month-younger cousin, Emmett, is his best friend & best rival depending on what kind of mood either of them are in.
Nolan calls himself "Nono" and calls Emmett "Emmy" and this is what he told me when I asked him about the day:
Nolan: "Emmy [signs "cry"]"
Me: "Aw. Emmy was crying? What happened?"
Nolan: "[signs "hurt" and smacks himself on the head]"
Me: "Oh? Emmy hurt his head? Did he hit his head?"
Nolan: "Yeah."
Me: "What hit his head?"
Nolan: Points to his chest, "Nono!"
Ha ha! Ok, not really a ton of signs used, but a great & funny example of how he can communicate a whole story with the use of both signs & spoken words. As a side note, my sister-in-law says he's already a great Catholic -confessing his sins so he can sleep with a clear conscience!
I hope you're well. Thanks so much for the experience, I've really enjoyed signing with him and now plan to continue it with my 4-month-old daughter. Take care.”
Solvay, and 23 month old Nolan, and 22 month old friend, Emmett (San Francisco, CA)
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“I just wanted to let you know that Vivian is signing ‘milk’, ‘good bye’, and ‘up’. She started doing it two weeks a go. It was very exciting, I'm so happy.”
Sandra and seven month old Vivian (Redwood City, CA)
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“Just wanted to share Cassia Jade signing fish at the water in downtown SF. She only has 3 words now but she has 25 signs! I love that she can tell me what she wants and when she is hungry. It has made our time together much easier on both of us. Thanks for the signs!”
Oriana Duranczk, Tony Cresci and 12 month old Cassia Jade Cresci (San Francisco, CA) Email Oriana by request
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“I want to thank you again for the wonderful workshop you did yesterday at the Edenvale Library. I'm so excited to learn more! I had gone to other sign language play dates and always felt like it was too much work and a hassle. It seemed complicated and unclear. But you made it so much fun and easy for me to learn that I continued using all of the signs the rest of the day. By six o'clock my 18-month-old daughter was trying to sign back to me! I could not believe it! I know this will help her and her little brother so much! Last night my son cried and cried (very unusual for him) and I wished so badly that he knew the sign for pain!
I want to thank you for being so generous and amazing with the children. For me it's hard to do things where I need to keep my toddler and my 7-month-old still for a long period of time, but your attitude about them walking, crawling and screaming was so relaxed, open and positive, I felt really at ease and not like a bother to you or the other moms. It allowed me to relax and learn while my children were... children. Also, I can't believe it, but my 7-month-old daughter used her first sign today! Just one day after we started signing! She asked for MORE bread... and more... and more... and more. She was so happy I understood her and was shining with pride... as was I! Thank you!”
Kara Herrera (San Jose, CA)
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“My husband and I love the classes. Our 10 month old, William, is having a blast and we are having so much fun learning the signs. We started to teach him a few signs - nurse/milk, eat, more, please and thank you when he was about 2 months old (a friend taught us these basic signs). William started to sign back nurse to us when he was about 6 months old. The instructor, Bill, is fantastic and he makes learning the signs very easy. We have no background in sign language and Bill's teaching method has made it really easy to pick up. The parents in the classes are also really nice.”
Kelley (Mommy to William who waved bye-bye to her for the first time today)
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“I am personally enjoying the classes. The instructor, Bill, is very good, he does a great job of providing associations with each sign which makes it easier to learn (that something I haven't seen in the books, flash cards or videos I have). Also it's fun to get together with other parents and their babies during the class.”
L.B. and six month old Alana (Santa Clara, CA)
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“We are glad to report that baby Zacahry started signing at 12 and half month old. He can do 7 signs now - milk, water, strawberry, go out (like a hat sign by pressing his head), change, airplane, animals (he can't distinguish the dog or cat yet). We enjoyed the connection with him at this age through signing. It's one of the best things we did to take your class. It's always enjoyable to be at your class.”
Jing, Kevin, and 12 and a half month old Zacahry Heisler (Redwood Shores, CA)
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"Our little Sienna is 15-months old. We were in Bill's classes when she was about 6-9 months old. Now she is signing about 20 different signs - some helpful, some just cute! I especially love when she signs 'please', 'thank you', 'beautiful' and 'red'. What we find most helpful is when sienna is 'whining' for something, we can say to her ‘please use your signs and she will stop the whining, and she will try to tell us something with a sign’. This is a relief from the whining but more importantly, we realize that she can tell us something and she understands us. We can't believe this early in her life she really 'gets things', more than we think."
Koryn and 15 month old Sienna (San Francisco, CA)
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“James Gordon is 15 months yesterday. Even though a lot of his gestures are reflexive – fists and extensions - I’m almost certain he attempted this yesterday. It was ‘change’. The situation, physical conversational context is why I felt certain he was trying this one out.
We were playing, smiling, having fun. He was fussy and we were trying to find happiness again, holding and entertaining in my lap. He was sitting up, lightly supported by one of my hands and a pillow. I started to show his favorite pictures, let him touch, push them out of my hands, grab hold of, etc. He stared at this one design he really likes to study and didn’t touch like he usually does. He slowed down and watched his fists come together – carefully. Then he tried to move them – while they were touching each other. I’ve never seen him do that before. I said “change!”. We immediately went to the changing table and blow me down…he needed a change. He smiled so big when we got to the changing table and I made the sign back to him…it looked and felt like understanding.
I sign to him all the time and when he gets control of those little muscles, it’s going to be awesome to see how much information he’s collected.”
Jamie and 15 month old James Gordon (Santa Cruz, CA)
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“Just wanted to send a note to let you know we really enjoyed your class with my son, Julius, whose favorite signs are ‘milk’ and up’. We did a sign language class when [our older daughter] Shayla was a baby and it was really useful for us that she could communicate before she could talk. But I enjoyed your class even more because your teaching methods really worked. I picked up far more words than I did in my last signing class. I think you're a lovely and warm person who was born to teach. You're a terrific teacher and you're simply amazing with the kids.”
Lovina Warick, Shayla and 12 month old Julius (Santa Clara, CA)
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“Dennis is signing a lot... in fact, I'm finding it hard to keep my vocabulary ahead of his! He has even made up a sign or two... sometimes a little challenging to figure out, but it's fun. I'm totally convinced that it really helps keep him a happy baby. I want to personally thank all of you because I don't think I'd have been as successful in signing with him without our playgroup!”
C.G. and 16 month old Dennis (San Francisco, CA)
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“I keep showing Lucas the proper signs and he's now picked up Drink which helps a lot. For Eat and More he still claps probably because we understand him and he's communicating which I guess is more important. Lately he's really been picking up the signs and it's been a lot of fun. His favorites are ball, plant, light, banana, drink, and more-eat, and he understands a lot of others.
I have to admit not only is it adorable but it's really exciting to be able to communicate with Lucas at such a young age. He lights up when he signs and I can tell he feels empowered to be able to communicate too. Thanks for the workshop on signing.”
Kira and 12 month old Lucas (San Francisco, CA)
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“We took your signing class a while ago at the 4C's in San Mateo. I have been meaning to write you for a while but Lily really took to signing. We waited and kept signing and then all of the sudden between a year and 14 months she really exploded! It was like she looked at her fingers and figured ‘I can tell them what I want with these things!’ By 16 months she was signing about 60 - 70 different things. It helped that Pete and I both taught and used different signs with her so she had a larger vocabulary than either of us! Lily is now 20 months and speaking very clearly and has a large vocabulary, she picks up and knows words the first time she hears them. She still uses signs a lot too. She always signs and says ‘please’ at the same time, and the same with her colors. I have been meaning to write you and tell you how amazed we were by signing and the grandparents can not stop telling people about it, they think it is so cool!”
Ginger Lordy, Peter Todd and 29 month old Lily Todd (Redwood City, CA)
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“I really think this is the best thing we've done for Avik (and for ourselves). Here's a list of the signs Avik knows: strawberry, popcorn, bird, eat, drink, water, milk, dog, cat, hurt, help, out, melon, cheese, bread, baby, music, tomato, grapes, banana, apple, candy, fish, book, cracker, up, down, sleep, shoes, spoon, change (as in diapers), play, finished, more, crayon, and tree.”
Pia, Anish, and 17 month old Avik Srivastava (Redwood City, CA)
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“Faith has been signing for the past month now and I'm so excited about it. Her 1st sign was ‘milk’, then ‘dog’, and now she signs ‘baby’, ‘eat’, and ‘more’. I do feel it has helped our relationship as we are now able to understand each other and she's started to talk a little bit. Thank you so much.”
Jessica, Erwin, and 12 month old Faith (South San Francisco, CA)
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“Zack is walking now - just started on his own 3 weeks ago. And he's signing and talking a lot too. I'm having so much fun with the signing. And everyone who sees Zack and I communicate via sign is so impressed. Thanks for all the information you've shared through your classes! I am planning to sign up for the Elementary American Sign Language I class at CSM for the fall.”
Christy and 15 month old Zack (San Mateo, CA)
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“Our son is almost two and speaking in sentences. It was so much fun to sign with him (he still uses a few signs) and I really think it made a difference in our communication with him. You made learning sign language fun, entertaining and easy! I really enjoyed communicating with him starting when he was only 9 months old. I think the fact that we could understand his signs made him feel good! If I could do it all again, I'd teach him even more signs to lessen the frustration we both feel when I can't understand what he's saying!”
L. R. and her two year old (Burlingame, CA)
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“I just wanted to let you know that Vivian is signing ‘milk’, ‘good bye’, and ‘up’. She started doing it two weeks a go. It was very exciting, I'm so happy.”
Sandra and seven month old Vivian (Redwood City, CA)
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“After 4 or 5 months of signing food, water, more, and milk to Leo, all at once he's signing back! He's already added airplane and sometimes dog. Mind-blowingly cool! Thanks for your help. “
Rennie and 12 month old Leo (San Francisco, CA)
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“I am fully communicating with my 16 month old. Every single day his sign language vocabulary is growing and I find myself surprised often at what he is picking up. There have been times when I thought he was ignoring my sign language, but then out of the blue he will sign the word. I am very thankful for the connection that I share with my son, Judah. You have helped me give my son a voice and he can’t even speak right now! Yesterday I gave him a snack and he signed, ‘thank you.’ I was amazed… this is the best feeling!“
Christine and 16 month old Judah (Redwood City, CA)
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“I just wanted to drop you a note and tell that Travis is signing like crazy now and how glad we are that we attended your classes. Every time a plane flies overhead, Travis swings his arm back and forth. He can usually hear them 15 seconds before I do. Or when a truck passes by… he signs truck. When he hears the train… he just touches two fingers together. But it is easy for us to learn his modified signs. He loves to sign ‘all done’ when he is bored with anything… especially his highchair.
It is so nice to be able to communicate with him while he is still working on mastering making sounds to speak. It is easy to see how this gets babies communicating sooner and more quickly making sense of their world. A million thanks!”
Gary, Melanie Lambert and 13 month old Travis (Menlo Park, CA)
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“I just HAD to tell you Casey had made her first signs!! We were in Tahoe at a restaurant where a little girl had a ski helmet that had a unicorn horn on it and some brightly colored mane, and Casey wanted to see it. The little girl was ignoring her, and she just turned to me with this look of desperation and signed ‘hat.’ It was just the best thing ever. She's also started signing ‘want' which she saw in that last class with you. She does that one all the time now. It's just SO GREAT!! Barry and I are just thrilled, of course. Anyway, we can't thank you enough! Your classes are just so much fun and we just love signing.”
Dawn, Barry, and nine month old Casey (San Jose, CA)
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“Bill White's signing classes not only were full of fun, but also incredible tools to communicate with our baby. Our daughter is 10 months and signing over 10 things. We can communicate effectively and also share in a new and fun way with one another. It is so important to find a common language. Bill White has an incredible way of teaching and creating a very fun and safe environment for families.”
Jenny Ward, Playward Inc. and ten month old Leela (Palo Alto, CA)
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“I just wanted to let you know that Judah, who is 12 months old, now signs to us when he has a dirty (poo poo) diaper. I began showing him the sign for poo poo when I knew he was going, but I also added a clap after the sign and I would add, ‘Yeah Judah!’ So now when he claps out of the blue, I know I need to check his diaper. I absolutely am a fan of baby signing. Can you believe I am communicating with my 12 month old?
Any parent would be nuts not to sign with their baby. I absolutely enjoy closing the communication gap with Judah. As he looks to my hands for signs, I feel closer to him. You cannot beat this. Thanks for your teachings!”
Christine and 12 month old Judah (Redwood City, CA)
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“Yesterday the most amazing thing happened. We were playing with a stuffed animal, a pig, which we had received as a present (it is really cute!). Anyway, Abigail started putting her hand underneath her chin moving her fingers. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I thought she had a itch, a rash (she has eczema) or something. She kept doing it and it wasn't until later that day it clicked with me she was doing the sign for pig! I didn't even remember the sign for pig myself (shame on me!), so how did she remember? She didn't see me doing it... did she remember from class? We only have one signing DVD (we really need to purchase more from you when we see you next) and I know they don't do pig on the video. We have the first one in the Signing time series (with Alex and Lea) where they do basics like ball, mom, dad, baby, want, etc. So how did she know? Anyway, we now BOTH are signing pig! When we see a cow, she says moo or a duck she tries to say duck to quack, but doesn't show me the sign. She signs dog (she has been doing that one since 8 months) and now pig... oh, and bird. I think I mentioned she does butterfly and seal and those are both really cute to see. Another fairly recent one has been lion which is so cute to see as she makes this look and puts her hand through her hair. It is so cute the way she signs baby and moves her hands from side to side as she cradles a baby. I swear that girl makes me melt a thousand times a day.
I have been keeping track of her signs, but not so good to put an age by each one. Basically when she turned a year, I feel like her signing just took off one morning, and she has been giving me half a dozen or so signs each day. (dog, more, different animals, baby, ball, mom and dad, etc.). She taps the top of her head for dad and her chin for mom... similar to water, but for water she puts the bottom of her hand/wrist up to her mouth. She doesn't do ‘mom’ a lot, but when I do 'mama loves you' like you taught us, she smiles, so I believe she understands. I think she understands the signs and is working on doing them back little by little. It is interesting because it is like Spanish for me. I understand a whole lot more than I can articulate. My father spoke it at home sometimes (my mom doesn't speak a word) and I studied Spanish in school and college, but without practicing my verbal command isn't the best.
So glad we will see you in the New Year. After Abby did pig yesterday though out of the blue, I wish we could see you or do a class sooner. I think she really thrives off of it, and definitely has taken to sign language classes which I am so happy to report!”
Jessica Chamé, and 15 month old Abby (Redwood City, CA)
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“Thanks for the great intro session. I never thought I'd be signing with my baby when I first learned sign language years ago. I only signed with Tazu a few times, but your session encouraged me to use more words and more importantly to have FUN with it! Thanks so much.”
Maria Luisi, Seth and Tazu (Burlingame, CA)
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“We attended four playgroup sessions at your home about six months ago, when our daughter was around nine months old. We diligently began signing with her and were met with a lack of response. Our parents reacted to our endeavors in different ways. Some showed a little interest but lost enthusiasm within a couple weeks, and some conveyed skepticism and said things like, ‘She'll be talking before she signs.’ Admittedly, after a couple months of not seeing results, I lost steam and stopped signing. But almost the moment I stopped, our daughter came to the rescue and signed 'more'. We regained our enthusiasm and haven't looked back since.
Now at 15 months, our daughter has demonstrated 28 signs, over double the number of words she can say verbally. What's amusing is I thought she would start telling me about things like diaper changes. Instead she started signing animals like ‘frog’ months before she signed ‘change’. It's a look at what's important in her world; animals are huge!
I now hear my once-skeptical in-laws proudly tell people about their grandchild's signing, and on a recent visit to my office, my co-workers eagerly awaited each sign she demonstrated. I was even stopped in a coffee shop when someone noticed us signing. I explain the reasons for and the benefits of signing, so people know it's not just a neat parlor trick!
It's so wondrous when our daughter points something out to us, and it's fulfilling to have this two-way communication with her. Once she signed 'fish' while looking into a friend's backyard. I insisted there were no fish out there, but when I looked around the corner at her line of sight, I saw there was a fish/rocking horse outside! Another time, I was bringing her home from my parents' house. As I put her into her car seat, she began crying. I started to try to soothe her, and then she signed ‘milk.’ If she couldn't have told me what she wanted, I would have driven for 30 minutes with a hungry and upset baby in the back seat. Instead I took her back into the house, fed her, and then had a calm drive home. I have so many more positive stories just like these.
Now I even see her actively looking at me to see how to identify an object with a sign. She is also picking up signs at a more rapid pace. I'm glad she encouraged us to continue signing with her! It's required a lot of dedication and hard work, but the results are more than worth it. Signing has given our daughter a way to express herself and be heard. I believe it boosts her sense of self-confidence and eases her frustrations (and, thus her parents' frustrations!)
Thank you, Bill, for sharing your knowledge and being so generous with your time during your lessons, which were fun and organized. Your extra explanations and stories behind the signs were not only interesting, but they helped me retain the majority of what you taught. At this preverbal stage, our daughter's use of sign language has allowed us to interact on a whole other level, and it's been wonderful!
Steve, Wendy, and 14 month old Sophie (San Mateo, CA)
They are now 2 years old but still signing a ton of words, which is great since one of our twins is not as verbal as the other, so signing has helped a lot on taming tantrums and communicating proactively to avoid frustration (in them, and in parents!).
I strongly recommend that all parents take the Intro to Sign Language and then join the Sign Language Playgroups as soon as they can. The more practice that parents can have with signing to each other and to their children, the earlier and more successfully their kids will sign in return. The payoff is tremendous!”
Denise (San Mateo, CA) - Excerpt from Yelp.com. Find more reviews at Yelp.com
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Hi Bill, Being back in your class is such a treat! We have missed you! We miss being able to talk in person but online [during COVID-19 SIP] is easier for scheduling around toddler energy and nap. I just wanted to let you know that we have learned and are continuing to learn a ton from you, not just about signing, but also about parenting.
16 months: Sammy has recently started signing up a storm-it's fantastic. Sometimes full thoughts like "me eat more please." He does all the animals one handed for some reason...alligator and moose one handed are pretty funny.
18 months: Sammy loves signing with us too and making sound effects. He even invented a game of red light green light with signs and his train. It’s really helpful every single day. Thank you for all you do and for brightening our shelter in place.
Marni, Adam, and 18 month old Sammy (Belmont, CA)
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Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1
“If you remember us, around the last time we'd stopped by Camden had just started signing but no verbal words yet and we'd started looking into different assessments to see why the delay in communication. We started having speech therapy twice a week. Camden picked up about 100 signs which was great to see after all our time and effort in and out of your classes :) It was very rewarding getting that communication going. I can't possibly imagine all the extra frustrations we would have had if we didn't have sign language to communicate with early on. After January he picked up verbal words very quickly and now the average person wouldn't guess he had next to no words just back in December. I highly attribute this to getting started with ASL, even if it was delayed, it still got everything going sooner than if we had just waited for verbal words.
Now Camden is turning 3 later this month and he's just been assessed by a psychologist and was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1, requiring support, without intellectual impairment, with accompanying language impairment. We've had plenty of early intervention services with Camden's speech and other therapy which has had such a major impact. All along the way therapists have praised us for signing with Camden. We're very appreciative of having that kick-start of communication with him. Thank you!”
Donna, Leigh, and 18 month old Camden (San Francisco, CA)
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“It is so much fun to gain insight into what my 11 month old daughter is thinking about. She points to a lot of things, so it is is sort of hard to tell what she is interested in...until she started signing! For example, I think she's pointing to a toy, but then I see her sign ‘hat’ and I can respond appropriately instead of playing the guessing game as to what she wants. Her favorite sign these days is ‘gorilla’ and I always know when she wants me to read her zoo book with the gorilla on the cover because she gets a big smile on her face and does the sign for gorilla and points to the book. It's amazing to be able to communicate and know we are understanding each other even when she is pre-verbal. You were right, the added sound effects totally save us. I only know when she signs ‘balloon’ because she makes a fffttttt sound like she's blowing up a balloon. Great tip! Take care and we will look forward to the launch of the toddler series, Va Va Voom playgroup. I can't wait for more signs to come!"
Rebecca & 12 month old baby A, (Oakland, CA)
www.studentsgrow.com
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Five years ago I took your class at Natural Resources with my baby Austin. This week I’m home with him and his brother Taylor (14mo). Taylor is signing up a storm - bird, apple, drink, more, eat, ball, strawberry, diaper/change, hat, cracker, cheese, milk, don’t touch, baby, etc. - and the words are coming just as quickly. Thanks again. It’s delightful!
Tom, 5 year old Austin, and 14 month old Taylor
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My husband and I want to send a quick note to say how thankful we are that we took Playgroup Boom and Zoom last spring. Eleanor was only 4-6 months then, so as you say you were mostly teaching us. We stuck with it for our most common words and its amazing what she can do now and how one day it just clicked with her. She’s now 14 months and has about 15 -20 words and 5 or so signs. We see that we use the sign and word and she decides whether or not the sign or word is easier and goes with that.
I also can’t emphasize how important and happy you told us to use sound effects. Her first “sign” was for balloon at 11 months. When we would go to the grocery store she was fascinated by all of the balloons at the registers. I would sign balloon with the sound effect. She has ignored the sign when I do it, but definitely uses the sound of a balloon every time she sees them now. :-) It’s adorable, but also effective.
I can’t wait to see how her vocabulary flourishes over the next couple months.
Oh, and I forgot to mention how much my husband have also enjoyed the sign language. We can communicate across rooms and the park, in a loud bar (to order drinks thanks to those handy drink signs) and while we are on the telephone. ASL helps with not only communication with our daughter but with each other. Can’t thank you enough.
AZ, FZ and 11 month old Eleanor
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I took your class at Natural Resources several months ago and just wanted to tell you how happy I am that I took your class. My daughter, Isabella is 15 months old and she is such a great communicator. I took your advice about adding sound effects to the signs and this has been so helpful. I feel like she is pretty advanced verbally and I think teaching her sign language has played a big role in her language development. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Natalie and 15 month old Isabella
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One of the first signs our child learned was "duck" b/c I used to sign it for her in the bathtub with her rubber ducky. She loves that sign b/c it's easy to do and she likes the "quack" sound. So ... the other night in the bathtub, she let out a big ole' fart. As quickly as she heard it, she turned around, looked at her butt, then signed "QUACK" and smiled. And you know what ... she's right. Quack and the sound/feel of a fart are sort of similar.
Parent's requested the child's name be anonymous for obvious reasons :-D
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”Little Maddie is 16 months old now and at last count she’s using around 25-30 signs! Some words she signs exclusively – especially multi-syllable words like elephant – and others she both says and signs. There are a few she doesn’t sign often but she will speak the words when she sees us sign them… and will point out the object. Most terms though she says and signs interchangeably. What a great gift you’ve given us! According to her pediatrician she’s got a tremendous spoken vocabulary for her age - about 80 words now – and we attribute it all to the signing. Thank you, THANK you for all you do.”
Dori Gutman and 16 month old Maddie (San Leandro, CA) Email by request
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“Bill came to our infant-toddler center for an seven-session series, teaching two half-hour sessions back-to-back. He always arrived in plenty of time and stayed beyond his full hour. We teachers loved his classes! Bill is a fabulous teacher: responsive to our questions and needs, and presenting signs in a lively and fun way. He was flexible regarding teachers and children coming and going, and where we held class - outside or inside, different classrooms depending on our needs that day. During class, children would approach him crawling or walking, and he wouldn't miss a beat, keeping up with the lesson while being friendly to the children. We teachers particularly enjoyed learning the songs, such as "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," which we would practice throughout the week. We also especially benefited from learning signs for everyday and urgent communication with the infants and toddlers, like "outside," "jacket," "no biting," and "pain." Bill's classes enriched our teacher culture, bringing to the team fun and laughter along with a new teaching tool. I feel very lucky that our center brought in Happy Baby Signs' sign language.”
Lisa Park | Infant Toddler Teacher | C5 Children’s School, 525 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco,
www.c5children.org
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"I took the baby sign language workshop and Boom playgroup series at Kaiser in Redwood City. It was a really great experience. My baby was 6-7 months old during the class. I thought her age was perfect. We took her to all the classes (you are welcome to bring your baby or leave her at home) and she wasn't old enough yet to get into trouble and crawl all around, but was old enough that she could play with toys and sit up on her own while I participated in the class.
It really was a sign language class for adults, but with the vocabulary geared toward baby activities. In order for it to be worthwhile it took (and still takes) a lot of commitment from the parents. Since I took the class about 6 months ago I've been signing while talking to my baby every single day. When I look for books or toys to get her, I try to find ones with clear pictures of items I know how to sign (e.g. a book with a realistic looking bird as the main character rather than a cartoon monster). The class itself is only as useful as you make it.
After about 3 months of signing to my baby, she started using "milk". Now she can clearly and confidently sign "more", "help" and quite a few animals and household objects ("ball", "hat", "dog"). She gets a big smile and look of pride on her face when she recognizes an object, does the sign for it, and then gets a positive reaction from me. I feel like I've given her another tool for communicating and learning about the world around her.
I'd recommend taking the 1-day workshop if you are interested. You might be able to cobble together a useful vocabulary using online videos and library books, but it would be good to at least get a baseline understanding of how to sign and how to use body language with your baby before turning to the internet for help. Probably the best part of the class was the accountability. It was easier to diligently practice when I knew I'd have another class in a week. So if you are the type of person that joins a gym just to give you an incentive to work out, this would be a great class for you. If you are totally self-motivated, perhaps the workshop only would suffice."
Hollie and Rhiannon, Age 12 months, Menlo Park
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"I wanted to extend a sincere thanks from my husband and myself for what you taught us with our son in your baby signing class at Carmel Blue. It REALLY helps us communicate with him. And lately he's been surprising us daily with both words, and his ability to sign new signs. Starting younger helped. He's 15 months old and he now signs: more, milk, duck, froggie, sleep, elephant, water, bread (his favorite food), and "eat" a first the other day! YAY! and chicken. Probably some I'm forgetting. But I am really impressed.
...Update a year later, he is still signing, speaks above average, and we are teaching him some Spanish and Chinese, using sign language as the translator for these languages. It's super helpful. Also, he wants to learn how to read already, so we are looking the finger spelling to connect letters for him on a kinesthetic level. Great stuff!"
The Young Family (San Francisco, CA)
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“Genevieve was babbling away and I wasn't quite sure what she was saying since so many words sound alike, so I asked her to "sign" it for me- she did and I totally understood what she wanted!! Yippee for signing!! She now signs and says the words!”
S. Campbell (Redwood City, CA)
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"I've had the pleasure of taking Bill's introductory course and 2 online series. His classes are fun and informative with lots of accessible and useful signs and some really fun songs. We love using signs with our little one as a way to connect and play and communicate.”
Jaime and 4 month old Indigo (Oakland, CA)
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“We started taking Bill's series at 3 months and I believe we've taken it 3-4 times. Our daughter Asrai started signing at 9 months with light, followed by milk, stripes and dog in the months following. Around 12 months she had around 25 signs and now at 14 months we've lost track. When she is trying to get something across that we don't get right away, she will hold eye contact and try over and over until we get it or guess it. She signs to be read a book READ-BOOK-PLEASE--sometimes with an identifying sign for different books; signs for the food she wants and of course for milk; and delights in identifying animals, stuffed and in real life. She also knows when to sign please to melt our hearts. Currently she is putting signs together to make short *sentences* most of them could be called jokes. My favorite is "EAT-DOG-OH NO!" The other thing she likes to sign is noun-scary/scared. Like MAMA-SCARY, BABY-SCARY, CHEESE-SCARY etc. In those cases she is doing it for a laugh but she also signs when she's scared of certain people or cars which is very helpful. We are so grateful to have such successful communication with our daughter who is largely preverbal.”
We attended many sign-language sessions with Asrai from 5 months on. She started signing at 9 months and took off at around 12. At the height of her signing she signed in complex sentences with over 200 signs. When she began speaking verbally around 2 years she spoke in (mostly) complete sentences. Sometimes we couldn't understand her and she would sign what she was saying to help us. Even recently, a few months shy of 3 years old, she was having trouble being understood. Her dad asked her where her mom was and she said "she's nursing" but her toddler-accent was strong and he didn't understand her after she repeated it a few times and he asked her to sign what she was saying and she said Zoë (her little sister's name) and signed milk. Now we are taking refresher classes for Zoë who is starting to sign.
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Asrai started signing little by little at 9 months and took off at 12 months. She was able to communicate her wants and needs well. At around 15 months she started making jokes! Once when asked what she wanted to eat she signed that she wanted to eat her toy dog followed by putting her hands on her face to signify “oh no!” When repeated back to her she laughed hysterically and signed it again until an appealing suggestion of a real food was made. Another time she signed cheese while we were watching a movie and Toby told her it was bed time not cheese time. Five minutes go by and she puts her face in front of mine, saying and signing “mama” until I ask her what. She then proceeds to sign “cheese time”. Toby and I just about died of laughter and I went and got her some cheese. She went on to sign this for some time for quick laughs along with rudimentary poop jokes like laughing and signing "scary poop" after using her potty. ASL gave us more than basic communication, it gave us a little comedian!
Toby and Rayna Mayer, and 14 month old Asrai (Palo Alto, CA)
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“Thought you'd like to see a video of us using our sign language in the hospital with 14 month old Vivian. Thank god I found your class as she may not speak again for a year or so.
We sure are glad we started signing early. It looks like it will come in handy! Vivian was born with airway issues, neurofibroma tumors by her larynx that were removed. We have been to ER many times...lots of steroids for swelling, finally decided she would need a tracheostomy tube to breath, grow and develop.
The sign she does the most at home is airplane as they fly over our house every few minutes. She puts her hand up in the air and leaves it there for a few seconds. We were all so happy to see her REMEMBER the sign! At home, we go through flashcards each meal time to learn new signs.
Just wanted you to see how much your baby sign language class has meant to me. I know you meet many families but you never see what happens later. I hope the video makes you feel very special because my desire to learn more was from you! THANKS FOR BEING SUCH A GREAT TEACHER!”
Amy Joy Hahner and 14 month old Vivian. (San Jose, CA) Email provided by request.
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"Addison is 16 months old and is able to do 37 signs! It's amazing and so fun to be able to communicate with her! At this point, I can show her a sign once and she is almost immediately able to repeat it back to me. Signing is the greatest! Today, when Addison and I left this little class we are taking, I asked her to say ’thank you’ to the teacher and she signed thank you. It was such a great public affirmation that she not only understands and can communicate, but that she's using manners! :) The other great part about this interaction was that the teacher knows baby sign language, so she signed, ‘you're welcome’ in return. Thanks again for the class.”
Darci Tracey and 16 month old Addison, (Mountain View, CA)
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“You might remember me, my husband Jeff, and our daughter Penny from the sign language class at PJCC. We were the ones who had extra grammar and vocabulary questions after every session. Well, we've kept up with the signing, and while Penny doesn't ask for her diaper changed (yet), she can communicate lots of other things. We took the attached video yesterday. You'll see her briefly sign ‘more’, ‘train’ and ‘hat’. Her other favorites are ‘milk’, ‘ball’, ‘dog’ (snapping), ‘bed’, ‘socks’ and ‘bubbles.’ She's picking up new signs nearly every day now, which is exciting to watch.
Penny's also signing ‘water,’ ‘wash hands,’ ‘banana,’ ‘peas,’ ‘bread,’ ‘mommy,’ and, to my total amazement, ‘swing’ (at her request, we now go to the park almost every day!). Thank you so much for teaching us baby ASL; definitely the best educational course we've ever taken!”
Allison and 12 month old Penny (San Carlos)Great Photos on file and a Video
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“We are great here and enjoying all the signs!! :-)
The boys turned one on January 28 (born 6 weeks premature so developmentally one year old on March 6). They are both signing up a storm!
Here are the signs that they can do consistently: mom, dad, grandpa, eat/food, milk, more, please, pea, all done/all finished, dog, fan, burp, bath, walk, car/drive, and change.
We are working on good, thank you, no, yes, sorry, see, later, wait, work, sleep, night, cracker, and many more.
There are some signs that they just are not coordinated enough to do right now, but they are really picking the signs up quickly!"
Rhiannon LaBrie and 11 month old Liam and Arlo (San Jose, CA)
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Just a quick note to say Anna is signing up a storm these days. She is 16 months old and regularly uses; monkey, hat, eat, milk, cheese, banana, broccoli, tree, berries, apple, more, elephant, please, all done, red and more. It's so fun! and so useful as she can tell us when she is hungry. We are having so much fun with the signing with her. I do think one of the things that made it easier for Anna to learn all this was having not just me and Jon be there in the class, but her grandparents too - they really got on board with this and further helped to reinforce it. Thanks again for teaching us this great skill!"
Jon, Danny, and 16 month old Anna (Muir Beach, CA)
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“Communicating via signs has been a dream! Abigail is rarely frustrated and therefore so am I. At 17+ months, she's just at the cusp of dropping some signs because she can verbalize them too, but it's still so cute to have her sign and speak at the same time. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Debra, Ethan and Abigail Allison (Foster City, CA), Click to email Debra. Click for Debra's Spanish Tutor
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“I should tell you that Sean (now 8 months) did his first sign - all done - used at the end of bath and mealtimes about a month ago. He also signs dog (for pretty much every mammal, but not bad) and also flaps his arms for happy, so he is getting close. He does a lot of things that aren't sign language but gets the message across - like tapping on the door to go outside and the chair to sit on it. He understands many more signs since sometimes I just sign to him without speaking. Also, my niece Elizabeth, who was hearing impaired from birth until surgery at 5.5 months, is now 11.5 months and signing sentences, such as "Play outside, Grammy" So, it works to start early as my sister and I did. Thanks so much for your great class. We got a lot out of it and continue to sign in conversation and reading books every day.”
Seven Months Later
“Sean had over 50 spoken words and numerous signs at 15 months. Now, at 17 months, he is saying three word sentences. He continues to learn new signs and usually adopts both the sign and the spoken word at the same time. He also has made up his own signs, such as excavator - which is sort of a modified elephant. I knew what he meant the first time he used it! I am very happy to have a baby that likes communicating. The redundancy certainly helps since the sign and spoken word together, especially at the early stages, gave us a clue, and he was so excited that we understood him, I think it encouraged him to try more. Plus, the alphabet placemat taught me the signing alphabet (good for working with my deaf student) and I am sure contributed to Sean knowing his alphabet since he loved going over it with me. Thanks again!”
DLL and 17 month Sean (Pacifica, CA)
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I have to say, I was originally a skeptic and did not think sign language would benefit a child's language development. That is entirely untrue and was solely based on my uneducated opinion at the time. I changed my mind within minutes of attending my first class taught by Bill. There was so much information about the benefits of teaching your child sign language that go far beyond the linguistic advantages and it all made perfect sense. I was immediately intrigued by the teaching style and enjoyed the four week class I attended with my then 11 months old daughter at the Foster City library last November. At first, I didn't think she responded much to my efforts of signing with her, but I enjoyed going to the class so much that I stuck with it and I kept signing with her. Of course my "vocabulary" was still very limited, but my enthusiasm did not dwindle and when the Woodward library and then Atherton offered the classes in 2015 I knew I would go again with my daughter. Those classes were taught by Erika and while I really liked Bill as a teacher I must say Erika topped it all off! She is wonderful with kids, and her class is fun even for adults. I find myself glued to her performance (for lack of a better word). She sings songs (her voice is lovely) and reads books with tons of facial expressions and gestures to keep the little ones entertained and interested while teaching them american sign language. Even if you had no intention of learning the signs, I guarantee you, you would enjoy her class. She brings items to the class that pertain to the topic she is teaching, weaves them into the stories she is telling and songs she is singing, thereby helping capture the children's attention. The kids learn american sign language in a fun and entertaining way. It is obvious that Erika enjoys working with children and teaching them sign language. She is excellent at what she does. The best part is, my daughter is now 16 months old and is using roughly 30-40 signs. It is amazing how all of a sudden she picked them up and started to sign back to us. At first there was the sign "more" and "milk", then nothing for a little while, and then within days, her sign vocabulary expanded tremendously. It was like an avalanche of signs all of a sudden. The other day I pushed her in the shopping cart past the strawberries at the grocery store, and she signed "strawberry" to me. She can't say the word yet, and without her ability to sign, it would have gone completely unnoticed by me that she recognizes the fruit, but thanks to the sign language we were able to have that "conversation". And it goes on and on, this is just one of many examples. Your kids will feel less frustrated trying to tell you what they want, because you will understand their signs before they can express themselves in spoken language sufficiently to be understood. It's an amazing tool and I am so glad to have ignored my initial hesitation and gone to that first class. All it took was 5 minutes to change my mind and the two teachers I have met from Happy Baby Signs are both phenomenal. Erika in particular is exceptionally wonderful with kids. I highly recommend Happy Baby Signs and their American Sign Language classes. The best activity I have gone to with my daughter besides swimming, which she loves also, and she can sign water and fish, so we have sign language conversations about that as well.... :) Long story short, go and try out their classes, you will not regret it!
Elisabeth M. (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
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We took Baby Sign Language with Bill at Blossom Birth. It was absolutely fantastic. I had no interest in this as I thought it was another silly baby class trend designed to make new parents spend even more money, but I happened to catch an intro at Whole Foods and as Bill talked about the benefits of being able to communicate sooner and better with your baby/toddler - giving then a sense of control, a voice, a start on labeling and categorizing the world around them, I was hooked.
I was not disappointed when I joined the class and my husband and baby loved it as well. Bill is fun and engaging and sings songs, teaches relevant vocabulary with lots of parenting pointers along the way. We also had Aniko observing our class and substituting and she is a great new teacher that I wouldn't hesitate to take a class with. I highly recommend these classes - everyone had a wonderful time and we are really enjoying communicating not only with our son, but as an added bonus we use it a lot with each other in social situations (to communicate a need without interrupting someone, like water) and when we don't want to wake the baby. Loved it!
Gina L. (Mountain View, CA)
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I took the baby sign language workshop and Boom playgroup series at Kaiser in Redwood City. It was a really great experience. My baby was 6-7 months old during the class. I thought her age was perfect. We took her to all the classes (you are welcome to bring your baby or leave her at home) and she wasn't old enough yet to get into trouble and crawl all around, but was old enough that she could play with toys and sit up on her own while I participated in the class.
It really was a sign language class for adults, but with the vocabulary geared toward baby activities. In order for it to be worthwhile it took (and still takes) a lot of commitment from the parents. Since I took the class about 6 months ago I've been signing while talking to my baby every single day. When I look for books or toys to get her, I try to find ones with clear pictures of items I know how to sign (e.g. a book with a realistic looking bird as the main character rather than a cartoon monster). The class itself is only as useful as you make it.
After about 3 months of signing to my baby, she started using "milk". Now she can clearly and confidently sign "more", "help" and quite a few animals and household objects ("ball", "hat", "dog"). She gets a big smile and look of pride on her face when she recognizes an object, does the sign for it, and then gets a positive reaction from me. I feel like I've given her another tool for communicating and learning about the world around her.
I'd recommend taking the 1-day workshop if you are interested. You might be able to cobble together a useful vocabulary using online videos and library books, but it would be good to at least get a baseline understanding of how to sign and how to use body language with your baby before turning to the internet for help. Probably the best part of the class was the accountability. It was easier to diligently practice when I knew I'd have another class in a week. So if you are the type of person that joins a gym just to give you an incentive to work out, this would be a great class for you. If you are totally self-motivated, perhaps the workshop only would suffice.
Hollie P. (San Francisco, CA)
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I wanted to extend a sincere thanks from my husband and myself for what you taught us with our son in your baby signing class at Carmel Blue. It REALLY helps us communicate with him. And lately he's been surprising us daily with both words, and his ability to sign new signs. Starting younger helped. He's 15 months old and he now signs: more, milk, duck, froggie, sleep, elephant, water, bread (his favorite food), and "eat" a first the the other day! YAY! and chicken. Probably some I'm forgetting. But I am really impressed.
The Young Family (San Francisco, CA)
Update a year later, he is still signing, speaks above average, and we are teaching him some Spanish and Chinese, using sign language as the translator for these languages. It's super helpful. Also, he wants to learn how to read already, so we are looking the finger spelling to connect letters for him on a kinesthetic level. Great stuff!
T R. (San Francisco, CA)
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The signing was indeed a tremendous hit and help during the pre-talk age, and my son really took to it. I have some great stories. One of my favorites was we were on a bike ride and heard a loud pop and while biking I explained that was a fire cracker. Later, that evening at dinner on the deck, I saw him staring out into the evening sky. I asked what he was thinking about and he signed to me: first, "fire", then "cracker". I about fell off my chair!
Lucinda Crisman and 16mo Colton (Santa Cruz, CA)
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We love Baby Sign Language Class at Carmel Blue in North Beach. Bill White at Happy Baby Signs Baby Sign Language is the best of the best. He is very focused on making teaching/learning fun for parents and babies and does so with an understanding on the time constraints for new parents. His anecdotes will have you rolling, and you'll also get a nice adult vocabulary as well... for those margaritas we all want to get after class :). I'm a firm believer (once a skeptic) of baby sign language after bill's teachings, and love having a new way to interact with my little one (5 months). The workshop was very informative and offered a sound base of understanding in the benefits of baby sign language and WHY it works. We've enrolled in Boom and Zoom, and may even do a repeat class just because we find it fun and educational. Its also a great way to meet other parents and babies :).
Ali E. (San Francisco, CA)
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I'm a new mom of a seven month old and have probably taken every "new baby" class there is in San Francisco. I can say without any reservation that Bill's sign language class is the best class I've taken so far. Highly recommended!
Candice S.
San Francisco, CA
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My wife, 7-month old and I started Bill's baby sign language class two weeks ago, and we've loved every minute of it. Having been to a handful of pregnancy- and baby-related classes over the past, oh, 16 months, I was starting to think that all instructors in the category 1) were not good teachers, 2) had zero time management skills, and 3) were completely self-unaware about points 1 and 2.
Bill is the total opposite. The class is well-organized, he communicates the agenda ahead of time, he stays on-topic (and when he doesn't, it's enjoyable), and most importantly, he's a fantastic teacher. Anyone who can keep the rapt attention of a handful of babies and their parents is a talented guy.
The classes are an hour long, and Bill is such an enthusiastic teacher, and keeps things moving so well that the time flies by, and before you know it, you're talking with your hands. He's a real multi-dimensional teacher, in the sense that he engages a lot of the senses in the process. Obviously sign language involves the hands and body, but he adds sound effects (since the babies can hear), and uses a lot of singing and helpful mnemonics to keep everyone on track.
Only two weeks in, and I'm using about 20 different signs on a regular basis with my baby. Looking forward to the next four weeks of classes!
Andrew M.
San Francisco, CA
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A group of us - enthusiastic moms, dads and babes - got together and hired a baby sign language instructor from Happy Baby Signs to teach us signs every week for a few months...
There were about 8 classes, and each session had a different topic - food, bath, family, colors, etc. I admit...the materials were sometimes overwhelming to me and my husband since there were lots to learn in one hour. But the instructor provided us with sufficient review materials and offered books and DVDs for purchase if we wanted to also study on our own.
Each class was fun. She incorporated games, songs, props and video demonstrations to enhance learning. She welcomed all questions and was patient with crying, crawling and running babies.
As for the actual signing...we have yet to learn it well, but we're eager to start signing with our baby. It's an amazing way of communicating with your little ones even before their first words!
SUM: Highly recommended.
Keiko S.
Singapore, Singapore
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When I was about 4 months pregnant, we got to watch Bill's baby sign demo @ the SF Birth & Baby Fair. After being a teacher in early childhood education for many years, I knew the importance of signing with little ones & it's many benefits. That being said, I never knew just how important it was until my husband Brad & I watched Bill's demo that day! Walking away from the demo it was as if the light bulb went off for both us & we instantly looked at one another & said "WE HAVE TO DO THIS & REALLY DO IT." We signed up for the introductory class at DayOne in Palo Alto with Bill so that we could learn some basic signs before our son was born. When we brought our son Emery home from the hospital we started using the basic signs that we learned so that we could become acquainted, comfortable, & confident in signing before Emery was old enough for us to begin signing with him. Surprisingly at 4 months old he signed MILK! My husband and I saw him & we signed it back to him & said "You want milk?" & he signed it repeatedly! When my husband came back into the room with the bottle & showed it to Emery he signed milk! Emery signing back to us had began. We were BEYOND excited. The very next day we called DayOne & we enrolled in Bill's playgroup series & convinced another couple we are friends with who has a son Emery's age to enroll too! In the next month & a 1/2, Emery continued signing milk on & off & we continued signing to him at *EVERY* opportunity we had. We learned so much from Bill's classes & enjoyed them so much. The next sign Emery added to his vocabulary was "change" (change diaper), he really didn't like having a wet diaper! Emery had been signing "change" for about a month and a 1/2 and when we were down in Southern California in the summer visiting my in laws, he kept signing change, change, change, change, change! Brad & I kept checking him & he wasn't wet nor had he had a BM so we kept saying "you aren't wet, you aren't poopy, you don't need to be changed right now." Well Emery had a different idea to that, he kept signing change, change, change for 15-20 minutes & began getting very upset (Hello Mom & Dad, I'm signing CHANGE ME!) so as Emery was persistent, I said to my husband "maybe something is bothering him, perhaps the diaper is rubbing him or something." So Brad went to change him & we were shocked! Inside Emery's diaper was an ANT! A live, crawling around ANT! Well long story short... my in laws had a minor ant invasion upstairs in one of their bathrooms (the one we had stored Emery's diapers in). POOR BABY! It was from that point on that we were true believers in the power of communication that baby signing can give a baby and its parents! Also, of course we felt horrible that we weren't listening to him before! Fast forward a few more months to Emery being between 8-11 months & his signing vocabulary just exploded over night it seemed!!! He was signing milk, change, eat, more, tree, dog, light, Daddy, ball, bird, animals, hurt/owwie, medicine, it was AMAZING! Not only had we become total fans of baby signing but also of Teacher Bill too! Any baby fairs we would go to, we always would go & see Bill's demo. He's such a nice, genuine guy which a wonderful sense of humor & charismatic energy. His passion of signing has become ours. Now (as of July 2013) Emery is a few days shy of 17 months old & he has over 100 signs (we actually stopped counting about 3 months ago while on vacation in the midwest and east coast & at that time he had 92 signs that we had noted in his baby book) and he also has 50+ verbal words (now of course, some of which others who don't know Emery might not understand but we sure do! Example: "nanny" is "banana" "mmm-o" is remote, etc.) Emery is also signing & verbally speaking words (says & signs "nanny" for banana). I can not tell people enough how much we recommend Happy Baby Signs for baby signing classes nor how great Bill truly is. Baby signing for us has been such a huge part of our lives as first time parents. It's been a monumental experience for us & I know years & years & years down the road when we look back at Emery's early years, baby signing will always be a HUGE memory of it. Our immediate families also have learned baby sign & have signed with Emery since he was months old and it has allowed them to communicate with & understand Emery's wants & needs. What a perfect way to show Emery that the people in his life care about what he has to say!!! (Something Bill is always mentioning, well it's nothing but the truth!) It has been a lot of fun, extremely beneficial, & has allowed us to bond with Emery in ways we couldn't have without the use of signing with him. We are happy that Happy Baby Signs is going to be starting Toddler signing classes soon & we can't wait to sign up. Hubbie & I are currently working on a video montage of Emery's journey with baby sign & will send it to Happy Baby Signs when it is done. THX Happy Baby Signs & TEACHER BILL! YOU ROCK!
Crystal C.
Fremont, CA
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I took a Sign Language Class with Bill White and absolutely loved it! Having a new confidence and way to communicate with your infant or toddler is priceless!
Emily G.
Palo Alto, CA
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“I just wanted to say, ‘Thank you’ again for introducing us to baby sign language. Orea is doing more signs everyday and it has been so much fun for us. Her most consistent signs have been dog, bird, monkey, eat, milk, bath, book and she even made up her own sign. She mixed the tilting of the hand ‘drink’ with a thumb in her mouth for 'sippy cup'. And every night before bedtime she makes sure she signs the work 'book' several times so that we don't miss that very important step. And my final bragging point....she has been adding signs together for sentences...like 'more' + 'milk' and 'more' + 'book'.
Anyway, I guess you can tell we are loving it and I really enjoyed your classes. You have a fun way of presenting the material without being too rigid. It was relaxing and fun! I hope you keep teaching the classes and passing on your knowledge and enthusiasm to others.”
Patricia and 15 month old Orea (Santa Cruz, CA)
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“I wanted to thank you so much for the gift of signing. It is really the gift of being able to communicate with our daughter. She has about 60 words now at 15.5 months (~45 signs and 15 spoken words). The range of communication--understanding and expression is really wide and I am so grateful to be able to know what she wants to eat (usually pizza) and what she is thinking about (usually ducks). :)
Again, many thanks. You did a phenomenal job in introducing us to this, giving us this brilliant skill, and helping us to have so much fun getting to know Lilly through signs.”
Eugenie and 15 month old Lilly. (Palo Alto, CA) Email address available upon request
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“Ruby is now 14 months and has been doing signs since about 11 months - milk and more were the first. She also does bath and bed and several animal signs. Now that she is older she picks up the signs so quickly after only a few times of showing her. We are back in Australia now and everybody is amazed at how she is communicating. Thanks so much for your class and encouragement.”
Sally and 14 month old Ruby (Australia) Email upon request
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“We love the class. It is a lot of fun and is making learning how to sign so much easier than looking it up in a book or online. After the first class, my husband and I were amazed at how many words we learned in just one hour. Cassie really enjoys watching the instructor as he signs and makes sounds for every word. We have started showing our sitter some of the signs so she too can use them with Cassie and the other kids. Well worth the money and a great time for the family.”
Dawn, Mike and eight month old, Cassie (San Jose, CA)
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“Just thought you would like to know that Kyla is signing. She started signing "milk" the day she turned 9 months. Now, a few weeks later is signing "eat", "music", and "more"! We are so proud :) Thanks again for a great class!”
Corinne, Jason, and 9 month old Kyla (Santa Cruz, CA)
Now living in Norway, fast forward one year:
“My daughter and I took your class a little over a year ago in Santa Cruz when she was 6 months old. She started signing for milk at nine months and learned over 70 signs. She became extremely verbal at 18 months and now at 22 months she still signs sometimes while saying the word. We moved to Norway 2 months ago and she is already starting to pick up some Norwegian. I think her signing was a great foundation for her being multilingual. Thanks for a great class!”
Corinne, Jason, and 22 month old Kyla (Sandefjord, Norway)
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“I've been meaning to email for a long time, but what happened this week really prompted me to do so.
I took your 6-week class when my son, Nolan, was a few months old. He's now 23 months. I don't feel like I was as active as I could have been in teaching him signs (I know so many after taking your class!), but he probably has almost 50 and still uses them all the time even while he says the words out loud. It's always been so cute to see him sign -I still think "moon" is one of my favorites and "help" has been so helpful these days to cut down on frustration.
Anyway, a funny thing happened when I was putting him to bed the other night. We always "talk about our day" after reading stories and before singing songs. We've been in Grass Valley visiting family and his 1-month-younger cousin, Emmett, is his best friend & best rival depending on what kind of mood either of them are in.
Nolan calls himself "Nono" and calls Emmett "Emmy" and this is what he told me when I asked him about the day:
Nolan: "Emmy [signs "cry"]"
Me: "Aw. Emmy was crying? What happened?"
Nolan: "[signs "hurt" and smacks himself on the head]"
Me: "Oh? Emmy hurt his head? Did he hit his head?"
Nolan: "Yeah."
Me: "What hit his head?"
Nolan: Points to his chest, "Nono!"
Ha ha! Ok, not really a ton of signs used, but a great & funny example of how he can communicate a whole story with the use of both signs & spoken words. As a side note, my sister-in-law says he's already a great Catholic -confessing his sins so he can sleep with a clear conscience!
I hope you're well. Thanks so much for the experience, I've really enjoyed signing with him and now plan to continue it with my 4-month-old daughter. Take care.”
Solvay, and 23 month old Nolan, and 22 month old friend, Emmett (San Francisco, CA)
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“I just wanted to let you know that Vivian is signing ‘milk’, ‘good bye’, and ‘up’. She started doing it two weeks a go. It was very exciting, I'm so happy.”
Sandra and seven month old Vivian (Redwood City, CA)
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“Just wanted to share Cassia Jade signing fish at the water in downtown SF. She only has 3 words now but she has 25 signs! I love that she can tell me what she wants and when she is hungry. It has made our time together much easier on both of us. Thanks for the signs!”
Oriana Duranczk, Tony Cresci and 12 month old Cassia Jade Cresci (San Francisco, CA) Email Oriana by request
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“I want to thank you again for the wonderful workshop you did yesterday at the Edenvale Library. I'm so excited to learn more! I had gone to other sign language play dates and always felt like it was too much work and a hassle. It seemed complicated and unclear. But you made it so much fun and easy for me to learn that I continued using all of the signs the rest of the day. By six o'clock my 18-month-old daughter was trying to sign back to me! I could not believe it! I know this will help her and her little brother so much! Last night my son cried and cried (very unusual for him) and I wished so badly that he knew the sign for pain!
I want to thank you for being so generous and amazing with the children. For me it's hard to do things where I need to keep my toddler and my 7-month-old still for a long period of time, but your attitude about them walking, crawling and screaming was so relaxed, open and positive, I felt really at ease and not like a bother to you or the other moms. It allowed me to relax and learn while my children were... children. Also, I can't believe it, but my 7-month-old daughter used her first sign today! Just one day after we started signing! She asked for MORE bread... and more... and more... and more. She was so happy I understood her and was shining with pride... as was I! Thank you!”
Kara Herrera (San Jose, CA)
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“My husband and I love the classes. Our 10 month old, William, is having a blast and we are having so much fun learning the signs. We started to teach him a few signs - nurse/milk, eat, more, please and thank you when he was about 2 months old (a friend taught us these basic signs). William started to sign back nurse to us when he was about 6 months old. The instructor, Bill, is fantastic and he makes learning the signs very easy. We have no background in sign language and Bill's teaching method has made it really easy to pick up. The parents in the classes are also really nice.”
Kelley (Mommy to William who waved bye-bye to her for the first time today)
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“I am personally enjoying the classes. The instructor, Bill, is very good, he does a great job of providing associations with each sign which makes it easier to learn (that something I haven't seen in the books, flash cards or videos I have). Also it's fun to get together with other parents and their babies during the class.”
L.B. and six month old Alana (Santa Clara, CA)
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“We are glad to report that baby Zacahry started signing at 12 and half month old. He can do 7 signs now - milk, water, strawberry, go out (like a hat sign by pressing his head), change, airplane, animals (he can't distinguish the dog or cat yet). We enjoyed the connection with him at this age through signing. It's one of the best things we did to take your class. It's always enjoyable to be at your class.”
Jing, Kevin, and 12 and a half month old Zacahry Heisler (Redwood Shores, CA)
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"Our little Sienna is 15-months old. We were in Bill's classes when she was about 6-9 months old. Now she is signing about 20 different signs - some helpful, some just cute! I especially love when she signs 'please', 'thank you', 'beautiful' and 'red'. What we find most helpful is when sienna is 'whining' for something, we can say to her ‘please use your signs and she will stop the whining, and she will try to tell us something with a sign’. This is a relief from the whining but more importantly, we realize that she can tell us something and she understands us. We can't believe this early in her life she really 'gets things', more than we think."
Koryn and 15 month old Sienna (San Francisco, CA)
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“James Gordon is 15 months yesterday. Even though a lot of his gestures are reflexive – fists and extensions - I’m almost certain he attempted this yesterday. It was ‘change’. The situation, physical conversational context is why I felt certain he was trying this one out.
We were playing, smiling, having fun. He was fussy and we were trying to find happiness again, holding and entertaining in my lap. He was sitting up, lightly supported by one of my hands and a pillow. I started to show his favorite pictures, let him touch, push them out of my hands, grab hold of, etc. He stared at this one design he really likes to study and didn’t touch like he usually does. He slowed down and watched his fists come together – carefully. Then he tried to move them – while they were touching each other. I’ve never seen him do that before. I said “change!”. We immediately went to the changing table and blow me down…he needed a change. He smiled so big when we got to the changing table and I made the sign back to him…it looked and felt like understanding.
I sign to him all the time and when he gets control of those little muscles, it’s going to be awesome to see how much information he’s collected.”
Jamie and 15 month old James Gordon (Santa Cruz, CA)
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“Just wanted to send a note to let you know we really enjoyed your class with my son, Julius, whose favorite signs are ‘milk’ and up’. We did a sign language class when [our older daughter] Shayla was a baby and it was really useful for us that she could communicate before she could talk. But I enjoyed your class even more because your teaching methods really worked. I picked up far more words than I did in my last signing class. I think you're a lovely and warm person who was born to teach. You're a terrific teacher and you're simply amazing with the kids.”
Lovina Warick, Shayla and 12 month old Julius (Santa Clara, CA)
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“Dennis is signing a lot... in fact, I'm finding it hard to keep my vocabulary ahead of his! He has even made up a sign or two... sometimes a little challenging to figure out, but it's fun. I'm totally convinced that it really helps keep him a happy baby. I want to personally thank all of you because I don't think I'd have been as successful in signing with him without our playgroup!”
C.G. and 16 month old Dennis (San Francisco, CA)
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“I keep showing Lucas the proper signs and he's now picked up Drink which helps a lot. For Eat and More he still claps probably because we understand him and he's communicating which I guess is more important. Lately he's really been picking up the signs and it's been a lot of fun. His favorites are ball, plant, light, banana, drink, and more-eat, and he understands a lot of others.
I have to admit not only is it adorable but it's really exciting to be able to communicate with Lucas at such a young age. He lights up when he signs and I can tell he feels empowered to be able to communicate too. Thanks for the workshop on signing.”
Kira and 12 month old Lucas (San Francisco, CA)
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“We took your signing class a while ago at the 4C's in San Mateo. I have been meaning to write you for a while but Lily really took to signing. We waited and kept signing and then all of the sudden between a year and 14 months she really exploded! It was like she looked at her fingers and figured ‘I can tell them what I want with these things!’ By 16 months she was signing about 60 - 70 different things. It helped that Pete and I both taught and used different signs with her so she had a larger vocabulary than either of us! Lily is now 20 months and speaking very clearly and has a large vocabulary, she picks up and knows words the first time she hears them. She still uses signs a lot too. She always signs and says ‘please’ at the same time, and the same with her colors. I have been meaning to write you and tell you how amazed we were by signing and the grandparents can not stop telling people about it, they think it is so cool!”
Ginger Lordy, Peter Todd and 29 month old Lily Todd (Redwood City, CA)
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“I really think this is the best thing we've done for Avik (and for ourselves). Here's a list of the signs Avik knows: strawberry, popcorn, bird, eat, drink, water, milk, dog, cat, hurt, help, out, melon, cheese, bread, baby, music, tomato, grapes, banana, apple, candy, fish, book, cracker, up, down, sleep, shoes, spoon, change (as in diapers), play, finished, more, crayon, and tree.”
Pia, Anish, and 17 month old Avik Srivastava (Redwood City, CA)
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“Faith has been signing for the past month now and I'm so excited about it. Her 1st sign was ‘milk’, then ‘dog’, and now she signs ‘baby’, ‘eat’, and ‘more’. I do feel it has helped our relationship as we are now able to understand each other and she's started to talk a little bit. Thank you so much.”
Jessica, Erwin, and 12 month old Faith (South San Francisco, CA)
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“Zack is walking now - just started on his own 3 weeks ago. And he's signing and talking a lot too. I'm having so much fun with the signing. And everyone who sees Zack and I communicate via sign is so impressed. Thanks for all the information you've shared through your classes! I am planning to sign up for the Elementary American Sign Language I class at CSM for the fall.”
Christy and 15 month old Zack (San Mateo, CA)
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“Our son is almost two and speaking in sentences. It was so much fun to sign with him (he still uses a few signs) and I really think it made a difference in our communication with him. You made learning sign language fun, entertaining and easy! I really enjoyed communicating with him starting when he was only 9 months old. I think the fact that we could understand his signs made him feel good! If I could do it all again, I'd teach him even more signs to lessen the frustration we both feel when I can't understand what he's saying!”
L. R. and her two year old (Burlingame, CA)
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“I just wanted to let you know that Vivian is signing ‘milk’, ‘good bye’, and ‘up’. She started doing it two weeks a go. It was very exciting, I'm so happy.”
Sandra and seven month old Vivian (Redwood City, CA)
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“After 4 or 5 months of signing food, water, more, and milk to Leo, all at once he's signing back! He's already added airplane and sometimes dog. Mind-blowingly cool! Thanks for your help. “
Rennie and 12 month old Leo (San Francisco, CA)
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“I am fully communicating with my 16 month old. Every single day his sign language vocabulary is growing and I find myself surprised often at what he is picking up. There have been times when I thought he was ignoring my sign language, but then out of the blue he will sign the word. I am very thankful for the connection that I share with my son, Judah. You have helped me give my son a voice and he can’t even speak right now! Yesterday I gave him a snack and he signed, ‘thank you.’ I was amazed… this is the best feeling!“
Christine and 16 month old Judah (Redwood City, CA)
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“I just wanted to drop you a note and tell that Travis is signing like crazy now and how glad we are that we attended your classes. Every time a plane flies overhead, Travis swings his arm back and forth. He can usually hear them 15 seconds before I do. Or when a truck passes by… he signs truck. When he hears the train… he just touches two fingers together. But it is easy for us to learn his modified signs. He loves to sign ‘all done’ when he is bored with anything… especially his highchair.
It is so nice to be able to communicate with him while he is still working on mastering making sounds to speak. It is easy to see how this gets babies communicating sooner and more quickly making sense of their world. A million thanks!”
Gary, Melanie Lambert and 13 month old Travis (Menlo Park, CA)
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“I just HAD to tell you Casey had made her first signs!! We were in Tahoe at a restaurant where a little girl had a ski helmet that had a unicorn horn on it and some brightly colored mane, and Casey wanted to see it. The little girl was ignoring her, and she just turned to me with this look of desperation and signed ‘hat.’ It was just the best thing ever. She's also started signing ‘want' which she saw in that last class with you. She does that one all the time now. It's just SO GREAT!! Barry and I are just thrilled, of course. Anyway, we can't thank you enough! Your classes are just so much fun and we just love signing.”
Dawn, Barry, and nine month old Casey (San Jose, CA)
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“Bill White's signing classes not only were full of fun, but also incredible tools to communicate with our baby. Our daughter is 10 months and signing over 10 things. We can communicate effectively and also share in a new and fun way with one another. It is so important to find a common language. Bill White has an incredible way of teaching and creating a very fun and safe environment for families.”
Jenny Ward, Playward Inc. and ten month old Leela (Palo Alto, CA)
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“I just wanted to let you know that Judah, who is 12 months old, now signs to us when he has a dirty (poo poo) diaper. I began showing him the sign for poo poo when I knew he was going, but I also added a clap after the sign and I would add, ‘Yeah Judah!’ So now when he claps out of the blue, I know I need to check his diaper. I absolutely am a fan of baby signing. Can you believe I am communicating with my 12 month old?
Any parent would be nuts not to sign with their baby. I absolutely enjoy closing the communication gap with Judah. As he looks to my hands for signs, I feel closer to him. You cannot beat this. Thanks for your teachings!”
Christine and 12 month old Judah (Redwood City, CA)
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“Yesterday the most amazing thing happened. We were playing with a stuffed animal, a pig, which we had received as a present (it is really cute!). Anyway, Abigail started putting her hand underneath her chin moving her fingers. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I thought she had a itch, a rash (she has eczema) or something. She kept doing it and it wasn't until later that day it clicked with me she was doing the sign for pig! I didn't even remember the sign for pig myself (shame on me!), so how did she remember? She didn't see me doing it... did she remember from class? We only have one signing DVD (we really need to purchase more from you when we see you next) and I know they don't do pig on the video. We have the first one in the Signing time series (with Alex and Lea) where they do basics like ball, mom, dad, baby, want, etc. So how did she know? Anyway, we now BOTH are signing pig! When we see a cow, she says moo or a duck she tries to say duck to quack, but doesn't show me the sign. She signs dog (she has been doing that one since 8 months) and now pig... oh, and bird. I think I mentioned she does butterfly and seal and those are both really cute to see. Another fairly recent one has been lion which is so cute to see as she makes this look and puts her hand through her hair. It is so cute the way she signs baby and moves her hands from side to side as she cradles a baby. I swear that girl makes me melt a thousand times a day.
I have been keeping track of her signs, but not so good to put an age by each one. Basically when she turned a year, I feel like her signing just took off one morning, and she has been giving me half a dozen or so signs each day. (dog, more, different animals, baby, ball, mom and dad, etc.). She taps the top of her head for dad and her chin for mom... similar to water, but for water she puts the bottom of her hand/wrist up to her mouth. She doesn't do ‘mom’ a lot, but when I do 'mama loves you' like you taught us, she smiles, so I believe she understands. I think she understands the signs and is working on doing them back little by little. It is interesting because it is like Spanish for me. I understand a whole lot more than I can articulate. My father spoke it at home sometimes (my mom doesn't speak a word) and I studied Spanish in school and college, but without practicing my verbal command isn't the best.
So glad we will see you in the New Year. After Abby did pig yesterday though out of the blue, I wish we could see you or do a class sooner. I think she really thrives off of it, and definitely has taken to sign language classes which I am so happy to report!”
Jessica Chamé, and 15 month old Abby (Redwood City, CA)
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“Thanks for the great intro session. I never thought I'd be signing with my baby when I first learned sign language years ago. I only signed with Tazu a few times, but your session encouraged me to use more words and more importantly to have FUN with it! Thanks so much.”
Maria Luisi, Seth and Tazu (Burlingame, CA)
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“We attended four playgroup sessions at your home about six months ago, when our daughter was around nine months old. We diligently began signing with her and were met with a lack of response. Our parents reacted to our endeavors in different ways. Some showed a little interest but lost enthusiasm within a couple weeks, and some conveyed skepticism and said things like, ‘She'll be talking before she signs.’ Admittedly, after a couple months of not seeing results, I lost steam and stopped signing. But almost the moment I stopped, our daughter came to the rescue and signed 'more'. We regained our enthusiasm and haven't looked back since.
Now at 15 months, our daughter has demonstrated 28 signs, over double the number of words she can say verbally. What's amusing is I thought she would start telling me about things like diaper changes. Instead she started signing animals like ‘frog’ months before she signed ‘change’. It's a look at what's important in her world; animals are huge!
I now hear my once-skeptical in-laws proudly tell people about their grandchild's signing, and on a recent visit to my office, my co-workers eagerly awaited each sign she demonstrated. I was even stopped in a coffee shop when someone noticed us signing. I explain the reasons for and the benefits of signing, so people know it's not just a neat parlor trick!
It's so wondrous when our daughter points something out to us, and it's fulfilling to have this two-way communication with her. Once she signed 'fish' while looking into a friend's backyard. I insisted there were no fish out there, but when I looked around the corner at her line of sight, I saw there was a fish/rocking horse outside! Another time, I was bringing her home from my parents' house. As I put her into her car seat, she began crying. I started to try to soothe her, and then she signed ‘milk.’ If she couldn't have told me what she wanted, I would have driven for 30 minutes with a hungry and upset baby in the back seat. Instead I took her back into the house, fed her, and then had a calm drive home. I have so many more positive stories just like these.
Now I even see her actively looking at me to see how to identify an object with a sign. She is also picking up signs at a more rapid pace. I'm glad she encouraged us to continue signing with her! It's required a lot of dedication and hard work, but the results are more than worth it. Signing has given our daughter a way to express herself and be heard. I believe it boosts her sense of self-confidence and eases her frustrations (and, thus her parents' frustrations!)
Thank you, Bill, for sharing your knowledge and being so generous with your time during your lessons, which were fun and organized. Your extra explanations and stories behind the signs were not only interesting, but they helped me retain the majority of what you taught. At this preverbal stage, our daughter's use of sign language has allowed us to interact on a whole other level, and it's been wonderful!
Steve, Wendy, and 14 month old Sophie (San Mateo, CA)
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"Last week the cutest thing happened here at Bloom’s childcare! One of our regular babies (she’s about 17 months old), was trying to communicate something to me. She had her hands together at her chest and she was bending her front knee. It took me a minute, but I realized she was trying to show me that her mama was in yoga class! Her hands were in prayer while doing a warrior stance. I just about died laughing! She can’t talk yet, but she can sure show me what she is thinking! Baby Signs is such a great way to start communicating with your little ones before they have their verbal skills!"
Michelle Long - Bloom Retreat Founder and Director
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"Last week the cutest thing happened here at Bloom’s childcare! One of our regular babies (she’s about 17 months old), was trying to communicate something to me. She had her hands together at her chest and she was bending her front knee. It took me a minute, but I realized she was trying to show me that her mama was in yoga class! Her hands were in prayer while doing a warrior stance. I just about died laughing! She can’t talk yet, but she can sure show me what she is thinking! Baby Signs is such a great way to start communicating with your little ones before they have their verbal skills!"
Michelle Long - Bloom Retreat Founder and Director
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